Chaos Abound
by Bloodfox64
Summary: When a Rob of great power hosts an event to entertain his fellows, the people of numerous worlds get dragged into something that will change the Star Wars Galaxy forever. -Warning!- This will feature realistic Halo, Stargate, Star Wars, Pokémon, and others.
1. The Beginning of Chaos

Author's Note: Well, here is a re-posting of this chapter and, hopefully, this one isn't as much a info dump. And remember, this is a story of **Chaos** and it is up to the Star Wars universe to try to survive it all…

Side note to all MLP: FiM fans: Please let me explain myself when it comes to the Alicorns, it is a part of this chapter and that is all I ask.

* * *

Chapter Title: Chapter 1: The Beginning of Chaos…

Chapter Quote: "Find courage in chaos. Jump ahead." – Unknown

**Legend:**

"Normal Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

Writing

"_Speech in Different Languages"_

(Author's Comments)

*Motions/Actions Done During Speech*

**Story and Chapter Start**

* * *

He walked onto the stage of a dark auditorium and as he did so a spot light revealed him to the crowd. As the man walked to the stage the audience is quick to notice that he is average in every way, from appearance to clothing. Similar in many ways to some of his current viewers, but as his more local audience knows all too well… He is far from average.

He clasped his hands and spoke, "Now ladies, gentlemen, and Robs of all shapes, sizes, and genders of choice. I have gathered you and the readers here today so we all may observe and, more importantly, bet on a most interesting series of events. I have used my abilities as a Random Omnipotent Being to put on a show that you can all enjoy and hopefully not many of the readers will stop reading and leave flaming reviews after they're done; as for you, my fellow Robs, this is an anti-omniscient zone, so you can't see into the future before you place any bets." At this most of the Robs, now identified as such, groaned, while a few others laughed at their misfortune. "Now, if you are done, I will tell you what this is all about. Oh and you may call me Bert."

The newly identified Bert clicked a button on the remote, which had suddenly appeared in his hand, and the projector screen lit up with a blank white screen. Bert stood there for a moment and clicked the button again.

Nothing.

"Damn it…" Bert muttered as he smacked the remote and then clicked the button a third time. At this, three columns of text appeared. "Finally… As I was saying, this is what we are all here to see or rather a list of poor saps that I dragged into this."

The first two columns showed lists of Good Guys and Bad Guys, while the third, which really was just a header, read The Star Wars Galaxy. "This is a basic list of the groups of beings that I've borrowed and as you can see, it should prove to be… *Evil grin* _Fun_... Now, my fellow Robs, if you would pick up the tablets that you received earlier, you will see the extended list of who will be on each side and what they will have resource wise. Oh and readers, you don't have to read it all, but I do advise at least glancing at it, or you'll be totally lost later on."

* * *

**Good Guys listing:**

United Nations Personnel Manifest – Total: 254,459,407 (With Destiny Population: 426,439,605); ships 15,252 (War Ships: Large: 1,059 - Small: 2,500 –– Non-Combat Ships: 11,386 –– Ship Yards: 307)

1 Pokémon –– 3 Chronicles of Riddick –– 6 Final Fantasy: Spirits Within –– 94 The Walking Dead ––

24,639 –– Naruto –– 45 Important People – 285 Akatsuki Members – 1,085 Konoha Ninja – 1,395 Kiri Ninja – 1,446 Iwa Ninja – 1,443 Kumo Ninja – 1,440 Suna Ninja – 100 Kurama clan members – 100 Senju clan members – 100 Sarutobi clan members – 100 Uchiha clan members – 100 Hyūga clan members – 100 Aburame clan members – 100 Inuzuka clan members – 100 Yamanaka clan members – 100 Akimichi clan members – 100 Nara clan members – 100 Uzumaki clan members – 100 Chinoike clan members – 100 Iburi clan members – 100 Hōzuki clan members – 100 Yuki clan members – 100 Kaguya clan members – 100 Kamizuru clan member – 100 Suchīru clan members – 100 Yōgan clan members – 100 Yotsuki clan members – 100 Kurai clan members – 100 Jishaku clan members – 100 Kasai clan members – 100 Sukōchi clan members – 100 Amatsubame clan members – 15,000 civilians –

137 –– Firefly –– 9, the Serenity's crew –– 28 other people –– 100 Brown Coats (34 of them are survivors of the Battle of Serenity Valley and were under Mal's command)

27,356,841 –– James Cameron's Avatar –– 27,356,796 Na'vi on Pandora –– 37 Humans at Hell's Gate –– 8 Very Important People ––

102,022,588 –– Forgotten Realms/Lord of the Rings –– 24 Very Important People –– 25,000,000 Dwarves –– 25,000,000 Hobbits –– 2,021,450 Humans –– 8 Tieflings –– 810 Drow Members of Bregan D'aerthe (405 fighters and 405 wizards, all very skilled, they are the most loyal to Jarlaxel and have never had the intent to seize power.) –– 50,000,000 Elves: 10,000,000 to each: Drow (Dark Elves), Alu (Aquatic Elves), Avariel (Elves with wings), Lythari (Sort-of werewolfs), and Eladrin (They aren't what you think they are, they are something else, and yes, I do know that Eladrin is the name of another type of FR Elves. Just think of them as your normal, run of the mill LotR Elves.) ––

28,409,124 –– Stargate –– 1,000 Asgard –– 381 Sodan –– 1,539 Abydonians –– 895 Athosians –– 467 Satedans –– 15,751,488 Non-military Tauri –– 348,444 Military –– 1,296,000 Wraith –– 1,000,000 future Tok'ra hosts –– 10,000 blended Tok'ra –– 10,000,000 Jaffa –– 60 Very Important People ––

50,160,010 –– My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic –– Alicorns: 17,536 –– Unicorns: 10,000,000 –– Earth Ponies: 10,000,000 –– Pegasi: 10,000,000 –– Zebras: 10,000,000 –– Thestrals: 10,000,000 –– Changelings: 142,467 –– 7 Very Important People ––

46,485,110 –– Halo –– 1,000,000 Huragok –– 10,000,000 Sangheili –– 10,000,000 Unggoy –– 2,000,000 Lekgolo –– 7,000,000 Non-military Humans –– 15,252,844 ship-side military personnel, 742,740 ship-side civilian consultants, and 486,000 Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine personnel (243,000 each) –– 170 S-IIs (Class 1 &amp; 2, crippled, "dead", &amp; successful) and S-IIIs (38, those who were considered good enough to be given better gear, like most of Noble Team.) –– 930 SPARTAN-IIIs (300 Alpha Company, 300 Beta Company, and 330 Gamma Company.) –– 2,400 SPARTAN-IVs (200 12 man Squads) –– 26 Very Important People ––

24 –– Miscellaneous –– Pokémon (12) – Portal/Half-Life (12)

**Other:** 46

Portal/Half-Life: GLaDOS –– Naruto: The 9 Bijū

36 (Some of Oak's personal Pokémon) –– Pokémon

171,980,198 + 3,060 Guardians –– **Bonus for a bit later: Bungie's Destiny**

98,637,142 + 2,276 – The Last City (A.K.A. Remnant) (Ural Mountains): Humans: 72,652,581 – Awoken: 5,328,347 – Faunus: 20,592,368 – Exo: 63,846 – Guardians: 2,158 (984 Titans, 512 Hunters, 528 Warlocks, and 134 Sages)

6,619,904 + 257 – Kingdom of Vale (Eastern USA): Humans: 6,563,259 – Awoken: 20,367 – Faunus: 26,678 – Exo: 9,600 – Guardians: 257 (100 Titans, 71 Hunters, 65 Warlocks, and 21 Sages)

\- 21,453 + 17 – Island/City of Patch: Humans: 20,829 – Awoken: 251 – Faunus: 273 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 17 (5 Titans, 7 Hunters, 3 Warlocks, and 2 Sages)

\- 19,728 + 12 – Unnamed City #1: Humans: 19,174 – Awoken: 213 – Faunus: 241 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 12 (5 Titans, 4 Hunters, 2 Warlocks, and 1 Sage)

\- 24,427 + 22 – Unnamed City #2: Humans: 23,846 – Awoken: 176 – Faunus: 305 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 22 (8 Titans, 6 Hunters, 6 Warlocks, and 2 Sages)

\- 21,383 + 16 – Unnamed City #3: Humans: 20,846 – Awoken: 215 – Faunus: 222 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 16 (7 Titans, 3 Hunters, 4 Warlocks, and 2 Sages)

6,124,343 + 231 – Kingdom of Vacuo (Western USA): Humans: 6,059,159 – Awoken: 14,592 – Faunus: 40,892 – Exo: 9,700 – Guardians: 231 (87 Titans, 56 Hunters, 63 Warlocks, and 25 Sages)

\- 20,484 + 15 – Unnamed City #4: Humans: 20,007 – Awoken: 185 – Faunus: 192 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 15 (5 Titans, 5 Hunters, 5 Warlocks, and 0 Sages)

\- 26,187 + 24 – Unnamed City #5: Humans: 25,731 – Awoken: 200 – Faunus: 156 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 24 (6 Titans, 6 Hunters, 6 Warlocks, and 6 Sages)

\- 21,930 + 18 – Unnamed City #6: Humans: 21,462 – Awoken: 195 – Faunus: 173 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 18 (2 Titans, 6 Hunters, 7 Warlocks, and 3 Sages)

5,273,304 + 195 – Kingdom of Atlas (Scandinavia): Humans: 5,259,346 – Awoken: 3,324 – Faunus: 934 – Exo: 9,700 – Guardians: 195 (77 Titans, 51 Hunters, 53 Warlocks, and 14 Sages)

\- 12,839 + 6 – Unnamed City #7: Humans: 12,593 – Awoken: 146 – Faunus: 0 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 6 (3 Titans, 1 Hunter, 1 Warlock, and 1 Sage)

\- 14,264 + 8 – Unnamed City #8: Humans: 13,915 – Awoken: 249 – Faunus: 0 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 8 (1 Titans, 2 Hunters, 2 Warlocks, and 3 Sages)

\- 696 + 12 – Schnee Dust Mine &amp; Refinery: Humans: 559 – Awoken: 37 – Faunus: 0 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 12 (6 Titans, 4 Hunters, 1 Warlock, and 1 Sage)

6,985,905 + 219 – Kingdom of Mistral (Australia): Humans: 6,934,684 – Awoken: 17,162 – Faunus: 24,359 – Exo: 9,700 – Guardians: 219 (55 Titans, 90 Hunters, 55 Warlocks, and 19 Sages)

\- 24,831 + 21 – Unnamed City #9: Humans: 23,846 – Awoken: 301 – Faunus: 584 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 21 (0 Titans, 10 Hunters, 3 Warlocks, and 8 Sages)

\- 23,152 + 20 – Unnamed City #10: Humans: 22,107 – Awoken: 243 – Faunus: 702 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 20 (2 Titans, 8 Hunters, 6 Warlocks, and 4 Sages)

\- 24,291 + 25 – Unnamed City #11: Humans: 23,310 – Awoken: 309 – Faunus: 572 – Exo: 100 – Guardians: 25 (5 Titans, 8 Hunters, 2 Warlocks, and 10 Sages)

35,201,366 – The Reef: Awoken: 33,567,269 – Exo: 5,269 – Eliksni (Fallen): 1,628,828 –

12,882,569 – **Other Populations:** – Humans: 2,543,345 – Awoken: 12,248 – Exo: 3,846 – Other?: 10,318,759 – Eliksni (Fallen): 4,371 –

* * *

"As you can see, the "Good Guys" are in this for the long haul, but they won't quiet know what they are being put against, and they aren't the only ones going into this looking for a fight, so here are the baddies."

* * *

**Bad Guys listing:**  
Covenant Empire Personnel &amp; Ship Manifest – Total Personnel: 1,484,129,944 –– Total Ships: 14,358 (7,209 War Ships + 7,149 Non-Combat Ships + High Charity)

98,780,314–– **Goa'uld** –– 56,000,000 human slaves + 200,000 Kull super soldiers + 42,426,750 Jaffa + 115,120 Jaffa Officers + 1,378 Jaffa Primes + 2,825 Goa'uld Ashrak + 30,000 other Goa'uld + 4,137 Goa'uld officers + 90 Goa'uld Under Lords + 9 Goa'uld System Lords + 4 Goa'uld High System Lords + Supreme System Lord Amun-Ra

2,930,005 –– **Wraith** –– 20,245 Wraith Worshipers + 2,201,215 Drones + 577,015 Officers + 129,625 Lieutenants + 1,771 Ladies + 121 Duchess' + 8 Archduchess' + 4 Queens + Empress Cold Amber

11,200,007 –– **Promethean Construct** –– 2,100,000 Watchers + 5,600,000 Crawlers + 2,800,000 Warriors + 700,000 Knights + 7 Wardens

1,000,000,000 –– **Arachnid** –– 183,261,691 Warrior Bugs + 366,523,382 mini-Warrior Bugs + 50,000,000 Tanker Bugs + 50,000,000 Plasma Bugs + 100,000,000 Plasma Grenadier Bug + 50,000,000 Hopper Bugs + 100,000,000 mini-Hopper Bugs + 100,000,000 Water Tiger Bugs + 108,000 Chariot/Minion Bugs + 1,176 Royal Guard Bugs + 99,920 Transport Bugs + 5,710 Super Transport Bugs + 108 Brain Bugs + 13 Queens

219,615 –– **Xenomorph** –– 207,025 Drone forms + 12,461 Warrior forms + 122 Praetorians + 6 Queens + 1 Empress

371,000,003 –– **Original Covenant** –– 10,000,000 San'Shyuum + 50,000,000 Sangheili + 10,000,000 Mgalekgolo + 50,000,000 Jiralhanae + 100,000,000 Kig-Yar + 100,000,000 Unggoy + 1,000,000 Huragok (Old Covenant, not Forerunner) + 50,000,000 Yanme'e + Xytan 'Jar Wattinree + Maccabeus + OC Chur'R-Zek Kho

**Old Covenant Ships** (3,575 War Ships + High Charity) +** Arachnid Ships** (Modified Covenant War Ships) (2,400 War Ships) + **Xenomorph Ships** (Modified Wraith Ships) (34 War Ships + 261 Non-Combat Ships) + **Goa'uld Ships **(662 War Ships + 3,000 Non-Combat Ships) +** Wraith Ships** (538 War Ships + 3,888 Non-Combat Ships)

* * *

"While the "Bad Guys" don't have an as extensive list, they are going to be out for blood and ascension." Bert paused and reached over to the suddenly there table next to him and drank from the glass he acquired from it, "Ah, much better. Where was I? Oh yes. Now each side has their reasons for doing what they are doing, for the soon to be organized U.N., it will simply be so they can live their lives, do the Star Wars galaxy some good, and later on, fulfill the role they have been given.

"As for the newly reformed Covenant Empire, well… Hmm… That is a bit more complicated. Now the Covenant will be comprised of two kinds of aliens, and I'm not just talking about the Xenomorphs. One kind is the sort that we know the Covenant for: religious fanatics. The other is the sort that just wants to have power and/or eliminate all who threaten their existence. For the latter, their motivation will be the fact that if they stay with each other and the rest of the Covenant, they will be _very_ hard to get rid of. For the former, their motivation is something that I really didn't want to include, but in the end was forced to.

"At the center of Covenant worship is the idea that if they activate the Halo rings, they will ascend to god-hood. And in order to properly get their asses into gear, I will have to have the minor Halos and Ark, along with some other Forerunner stuff in the Galaxy (the Star Wars one). But there are some things you must know, one there will NOT be any Flood of any sort. Two there will be NO Forerunners around. Three, all of the technology will still be keyed to humans from Halo. But they will be able to have the key changed to something else later on, as for how or what they would change it to, I'll be keeping that a secret for the moment.

"Now I will let the Robs ask some questions. Please raise your hand if you have one." As looked over them a few dozen hands shot up. "Okay, I'll go with you ma'am, in the red shirt. Please say where you are from and what your question is."

She grabbed the mic that appeared in front of her, "Thank you. I'm from around the little bit of reality that's in-between the Marvel and DC multi-verses…" At that many of the other Robs winced. "Yeah, I know, that is part of why I'm asking what I'm asking. Now, what are you going to do about the bull shit that happens in the universes that you're taking people from, particularly Stargate, Naruto, and Forgotten Realms? And also, what are going to do about the bull that takes place in the Star Wars universe, I mean, they are very entertaining places to observe, but when you come from a place like where I'm from, that sort of shit just gets old and fast."

Bert looked at and nodded, "Ah, I understand your concerns and I hope to not let you down on this. As for what I'm doing about much of the bull shit, first: they cannot perform the SG-1 trifecta, which is time travel, parallel dimension travel, and alternate reality travel. The only stuff that any one will be able to do that is under the category of Space and Time is the following: teleportation, FTL travel (slip-stream space and hyperspace of varying forms), pocket dimensions (dyson spheres/shield worlds, sealing scrolls, and other similar things), and a few other very select things. And as for the bull from Star Wars, well I try to curb it in, buuut… Well, as you know, Star Wars is a really difficult universe to work with from a logical standpoint. Next question. You, sir in the black."

"Thank you. I'm from just outside the Forgotten Realms Containment Zone and I was wondering how you'll introduce all of these people to what is going on and how do you expect them all to work together? I ask this for the reader's benefit."

"Good point and thank you for that. First I must point out that as a Rob, I can just implant the basic understanding of what is going on to them, so they don't try to kill each other. The other thing that I'm doing is having them forge bonds via combat. Many of the people who I consider important to the plot will be put into different situations where they have to work together to survive. I'll have something similar going on for the bulk of the "good guy's" fleet. As for the "bad guys", well they are the sort who it would take more than fighting together to get them to cooperate in the long run, hell even short term for some of them. So I'm gonna have to do full on R.O.B. hand waving to get things going with them. But that isn't to say there won't be any problems, there will be, they just won't be popping up immediately or really violently until later.

"Next question. Hmm, let's go with you sir, in the camo hoodie."

He stood up and grabbed the mic, "Thank you sir, as you know, many of the readers who are MLP: FiM fans generally... Disapprove of Alicorn OCs. How are you going to balance that with the fact that you seem to have a small population of Alicorns participating in this situation?"

Bert sighed, "Yeah, that I forgot about that for a bit. The situation is complicated, due to the various sources on Alicorns and how they are depicted in general. I am having there be more Alicorns other than the Princesses, the why comes down to a number of facts. One, it has been shown that Alicorns can be born. Princesses Luna and Celestia. Flurry Heart. The less know cousin Leon. These characters show that it can happen and for some, Leon for example, there is no real explanation for as to where they came from or who their parents are. Two, it has been shown that the kind of Pony one is can be very... Random. The Cakes are the main example, two Earth Ponies having a Pegasus and a Unicorn, with the genetic traits being very vague. Three, Alicorns are considered a perfect balance between the three common Pony types: Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony. So thus, with the three tribes becoming one nation, inter-breeding between them would become exponentially higher."

Bert stopped for a moment to take another sip from his suddenly there glass, "That fact leads me to say that slowly, _extremely_ slowly, Alicorns would start to be born, and even then they would be incredibly uncommon. They would be long lived, only three or four hundred years, they would usually be powerful, but not _too_ powerful, just more so in comparison to normal Ponies, let's say Shining Armor or pre Element Bearer Twilight Sparkle. And finally, an Alicorn would have much higher chances of having a Alicorn child, even if their partner wasn't an Alicorn. Cadence is a good example of this, but that _could_ be written off as the fact that she is a Alicorn princess, which will matter in this situation. Overall, the common Alicorns will _not_ be super powerful, they will _not_ have natural lifespans of thousands of years, and they will _**not**_ be Mary Sues.

"Now there is one other note about Alicorns. For the moment, I will be having only three minor Alicorns (Alicorn OCs) that will be important, all of them are highly experienced military commanders, and have been so for at least several decades, so they will be quick on the up keep and won't make _too_ many mistakes." Bert took a deep breath, "Now, next question? You in the neon pink. Yes, you, please stand up..."

* * *

**Chapter End**

I hope that most of you liked this and that you'll want more. I would like to thank The Dragonic Saint for his help with looking this over and making corrections. For those who review, please no flames, I hate clutter. And for the rest of you who review, please, be honest.

Bloodfox64 out!

P.S.:

For those want to know the exact numbers for the SPARTAN-IIs, here you go:

SPARTAN notes: The 2 marked with Xs and two other class ones had to have been "dead" - 33 passed, 12 crippled, and 30 "dead" - 1 crippled turned trator and isn't listed.

38 – Emile-A239, Jun-A266, Thom-A293, Rosenda-A344, SPARTAN-B312, &amp; 33 other S-IIIs (S-IIIs considered worth while for Mjölnir armor)

16 – James-005, Li-008, Joshua-029, Vinh-030, Isaac-039, William-043, Anton-044, Keiichi-047, Linda-058, Malcolm-059, Kelly-087, Grace-093, Frederic-104, John-117, Joseph-122, &amp; Carris-137 (S-IIs that could have been at Red Flag)

18 – Nicole-458 &amp; 17 others (All Class 2 of the S-IIs that got through the augmentations)

17 – Kirk-018, Serin-019, Cassandra-075, René-081, Fhajad-084, Musa-096, Ralph-103, &amp; 10 "dead" S-IIs ("Dead"/Washed out S-IIs)

21 – Jai-006, Naomi-010, Daisy-023, Otto-031(X), Samuel-034, Randall-037, Douglas-042, Kurt-051, Jorge-052, Margaret-053, Maria-062, Sheila-065, Solomon-069, Arthur-079, Jerome-092, Victor-101, Adriana-111, Mike-120, Alice-130, Cal-141, &amp; Roma-143(X) (S-IIs that could NOT have been a part of Red Flag, either because they died after the augments or elsewhere)

60 – The left over S-IIs of class 1 and 2 that were the DIs for the S-IIIs, they basically have no augments (the 5 other crippled class 1s) (15 "dead" class 1s) (40 crippled/"dead" class 2s)


	2. Introduction to Madness

Author's Note:

Okay, here it is, at long last chapter 2, take 2. Sorry for it taking so long (for those very few who liked what you saw and have been waiting), but this story has a _lot_ of world building that have to do, along with just figuring out how somethings will go, it is time consuming and life always finds a way to get in yours. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Title: Chapter 2: Introduction to Madness

Chapter Quote: "You'll have moments when you feel like a lion and moments when you feel like a mouse. Just know that no matter how you feel, you still have a heartbeat and a soul worth of love, so learn to roar even when you feel small, because you are more than the feelings you may have." – T.B. LaBerge

**Legend:**

"Normal Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

Writing

"_Speech in Different Languages"_

(Author's Comments)

*Motions/Actions Done During Speech*

**Chapter Start**

* * *

**READ TO AVOID CONFUSION:**

While this story is made of a large number of official fictional worlds, there are a large number of characters that I am taking from other fictional worlds and doing some... Tweaking to their back stories, which may or may not come up, so I can use them for this story. Most of them are going to be modded to fit in Halo, Stargate, or Forgotten Realms, though others will be changed to live in a Galaxy far, far away.

So please understand that some of the characters that I have in here are important, but aren't from any of the fictions that are listed as being a world Bert is yoinking people from... I'll try to explain what I have them from (In story), but that might not be able to come up any time soon, or even at all.

On a side note, imagine Prof. Oak as Robin Williams, he had been promised the role if there was a live action Pokémon and it feels right.

* * *

_Later_

After a break, Bert walked back on to the stage and waited as the auditorium filled back up. As soon as the last of the Robs entered the room, he cleared his throat, "Okay, now that we are all here again, let's get back to business. First things first, I have many things going on that I've shown to you, but there are going to be a number of little surprises that are important and I won't be saying much about. Bu–"

*THUMP!* *THUMP!* *THUMP!*

Bert glanced to the right side of the stage, where the sounds that had interrupted him came from and then gave a disbelieving stare, "...I though he would be out for a few more hou–"

*THUMP!*

The edge of a wooden crate appeared. The holes along the top, along with the crates movement, made it obvious that there's a _very_ displeased animal inside it.

*THUMP!* *THUMP!*

The crate was now in full view of the crowd, who broke into whispers at the various and numerous labels on it: LIVING CARGO - WARNING - DO NOT ANTAGONIZE - FIRE HAZARD - THIS SIDE UP - RUSHING JAWS - ON LOAN FROM ERU/ILÚVATAR

Bert listened to their whispers with a smirk as he walked up to the crate and sat on it.

"No way, did he really...?

"Holy shit, is it safe to be near it? Let alone in the same building?"

"How can he be so casual about this?"

"I don't know about you, but if nothing else this will end up leading to some very entertaining situations."

"Entertaining situations?! Shit, I'd have left the building by now if it weren't for the bets I made earlier!"

"If he has _him_ under control, we _should_ be fine... Right?"

"Whatever..." A Rob sighed and turned to the stage, "Hey Bert? Should we be worrying about that or what?!"

Bert's smirk grew into a full on grin, "Ah, everything's fine, he just woke up sooner than I thought he would. Speaking of..." Berk, still sitting on it, looked down at the crate and rapped his knuckles on it. "That should keep him down until _after_ I want to let him out." Bert sighed, stood up, and gave the crate a hard kick. A vortex opened over it and the crate slowly rose, until it went through. After the vortex closed, Bert turned back to the crowd and he gestured to where the crate was a moment ago, "See, all's good... Now, What I was saying? ...Oh right, I won't being saying much about the surprises I'll be having, but they will be all sorts of fun and will make things very_... Interesting_."

Bert walked back to the center of the stage and took a drink of water. "Oh and for the readers who wanted to see more of the Q&amp;A, if there are enough questions that raise good points, there will be a section or two featuring those questions in future chapters." As he said this he started to fade away. "Now we are going to move on to where important people are waking to their new reality and having new bonds between them be forged in fire. This isn't what I originally going to do, buuuut a friend of mine said that what I had was too boring and un-Rob-ish. So get ready for a lot of action, laughs, muttered and not so muttered curses, and the obligatory explosions."

As Bert finished, he was gone.

* * *

_Dzhem Tsarstvo System, Abeir-Toril, (Dzhem Tsarstvo-2), Far Eastern Continent Osse_  
_0800, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

The sun slowly crept over the horizon as Bert stood outside a simple gray structure. He reached into his pocket and took out a tablet, he grinned as he turned it on and took out an ear piece. He put it on and took a deep breath.

* * *

_Inside the building, same location, a few minutes earlier_

River Tam woke up suddenly and became aware of many things at once. She and the rest of the crew of the Serenity were in a 50 ft. by 250 ft. building with 29 other unconscious people, a large amount of weapons and equipment, and in the middle of the room was a table with a holographic display on it. They were also being watched through several cameras and there was a mass of... _Darkness_ approaching them.

She bolted up and started to walk to Mal, until she realized not only was she _not_ being assaulted by the thoughts and feelings of the people and environment around her, she was in an sleek suit of armor and had a strange helmet on.

River stood there shocked by clarity she never had before and attempted to figure out _why_ things were so clear. _'Why are thing so clear...? I don't feel like I don't have any meds in my system and I think that... Yes That is still gone, so that leaves... The _helmet_? __...What. The. Hell?! Completely unfamiliar design. Same with the armor. Incredibly advanced, if simple? But... not possible. Unless... Magic? But there's technology...? Magi-tech?! ...Was made by...'_ River's mind started to go numb as she tried to go deeper into the feeling, like a fox pursuing an elusive hare. _'Gerrrr, I'll get you later, we have _darker_ issues.'_

River continued to move again, shaking her head. She walked to Mal and poked him.

"Huh? River? What's goin' on?" Mal asked groggily.

River tilted her head to the side as the helmet's visor cleared to show her face. "We're in a strange building with a lot of just as strange people and weapons... How could you tell it was me?"

Mal sat up and looked around, "Becaus-"

Mal was interrupted speakers cracking on and a booming voice coming through it, "OKAY LADIES! TIME TO WAKE UP, YOU GOT PLACES TO BE, PEOPLE TO MEET, AND THINGS TO KILL." As the voice said this, the other people jerked awake. The voice, seemingly knowing some of the people may get violent, continued to speak. "ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN THE BUILDING YOU ARE IN WILL BE UNDER ATTACK BY ALIEN FORCES IN FIFTEEN MINUTES. BY THAT TIME, YOU WILL HAVE TO MOVE AWAY FROM HERE AND FIND A WAY TO SURVIVE... HAVE FUN AND STAY ALIVE."

River observed visually and mentally, how the five groups reacted to this news.

As Mal looked to Zoë, River checked each of the crew members of the Serenity.

Mal was a bit foggy, but his mind was sharp, looking for ways for them to get out of their latest mess. Both Wash and the Shepherd (_'Oh thank goodness they're alive!'_) were half surprised at being alive and half wondering what the heck was going on. Zoë was relived- no, overjoyed at Wash being alive, but her military mind was looking at everything that could help them and make sure that they all _stayed_ alive. Jayne was a bit confused, but he understood that a huge fight was coming and what that meant for him. Inara worried, but her training helped keep her calm. Kaylee and Simon were both scared and were trying to focus on their respective jobs to stay calm.

Zoë nodded and moved to gather the rest of the crew, and then Mal looked to River herself. River knew that as... Odd as she may act most of the time, after the Miranda incident Mal would trust her with most serious things.

River glanced at the table and said, "There is a... Indescribable _darkness_ coming, we _must_ stay together to fight it." Mal nodded and moved to join Zoë. River then looked over the rest of the people with them.

A tall blonde officer looked to the soldiers with her and began to bark out commands. She was wondering what the hell was going on, but she intended to get her people through it. "Buck! Get 'em ready, I'll talk to the others." She then looked at the rest of the people in the building. Most of the woman's troops were normal, if highly skilled, people. But among them were three minds that were younger then River herself and yet at the same time were shields and blades of wrath, forged into the finest of weapons.

A grim faced man looked over the group of people with him, a small group of criminals and federal agents. The man nodded calmly to himself, as he usually does after he has ascertained a situation to the best of his considerable abilities, before speaking. "Dembe," he said quietly to the man beside him, his voice smooth, calm, and cultured, "make sure they're ready for anything. And try to find out what you can about the armor we're all wearing." He then moved to the table in the middle of the room.

A tall, broad shouldered, muscular man with goggles, a clean-shaven head, and a primal air about him quietly questioned if the two young adults with him could keep up if things went south, while he scanned the room. One of them was a young man of faith, who had, until recently, been working under a normal, greedy merc. The other was a young woman, River's age, she had somewhat of a primal air to her, but she felt oddly... _Dulled_ to pain.

And finally a calm looking - though to River, obviously worried - man of considerable abilities eyed the central table, while he spoke to the two teens with him, asking if they were ready and for them to wait to ask questions. One of the teens was a girl, a couple of years younger than River, who had a sharp and hard mind. The other teen was about River's age, he was kinder than the two he was with, but was willing to do what was needed to be done.

At the same time as the grim man, the blonde walked to the table, which had a holographic map on top of it. As the two got to it, she called out to every one, "Can someone from each of group get over here so we can figure out how to get through this alive."

Mal walked up to River and clasped her shoulder, "Come on lil' Albatross, you know the most about what's up."

As Mal got to the table, the blonde looked up, "Buck what are you..." She trailed off as she looked back over to her troops, realizing that Buck was still over there. "This is going to be a problem."

River stepped up, "Not really, but right now we need to find a way to survive... I can feel a great darkness closing in from all sides."

"What?" The blond's face showed obvious confusion. "How can you know that?"

Mal cleared his throat, "Yeah, she's what we call a reader. She can see and hear things people normally can't. I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds, call me Mal, and this here is River Tam, you two are...?" He trailed off pointing at the blonde and the grim man.

"Captain Veronica Dare of the U.N.S.C., just call me Dare."

"Raymond Reddington, Concierge of Crime," replied the other with a slight nod. "Please, call me Red."

Mal raised an eyebrow at this, "Oh? Crime? If this were a better time I'd want to talk to you, but we have things to do..." He trailed off as River reached past him a hit a button. The hologram on table, which had been showing a planet, zoomed in show a small building, with thirty eight green figures in it. River then pushed another button, the hologram zoomed out, showing thousands of red dots distantly surrounding the building.

Mal glanced at the others, "Are you guys coming or what? Because, if thing is to be believed, we really do got problems heading our way." As the two men walked over Mal gestured to those at the table, "I'm Mal, this is River, Dare, and Red. You guys?"

The worried one glanced at the hologram, "I'm Damon."

The goggled one eyed River, "Call me Riddick."

Dare sighed, "Okay, now we know our names, can we get to surviving this? This map," She gestured to the table. "Shows what seems to be us in the building in the middle and then there is this." This time she gestured to the mass of red dots surrounding them. "It looks like we have incoming... We don't have much time, they're about 8 klicks out and they're moving in _fast_."

Riddick hmmed, "What makes you think this is actually happening?"

Dare raised an eyebrow, "I would rather take is seriously, the worse that could happen is that its wrong and we get out of here without issue."

Riddick nodded, "Fine, let's rap this up."

"Then I want to know how many people we got here and how many we have to protect." As she said this, Dare looked over one of the control panels. "I got myself, 10 O.D.S.T.s with me... They're military special forces." She added at some looks of confusion. "And three Spartan super soldiers."

Mal coughed, "Super soldiers?"

Dare nodded and had the map zoom out even further, "Yes and they will be extremely helpful in getting us out of here, they are thee best of the best, period."

Mal glanced at River. She nodded and Mal continued, "Okay then, counting myself and River here, I got five capable fighters, as well a doctor, a mechanic, a pilot, and well... Another lady. The last four can shoot a gun, some better than others, but not much more."

Dare nodded, thinking, and looked to Red, "You?"

"Counting myself, I have nine who are trained in combat. One is a hacker and the rest are well versed in crime and investigation."

Dare hmm-ed and turned to the last two.

Riddick pressed a button and brought up a legend as he spoke, "The three of us are fighters, though the boy's a bit soft."

Damon looked at the legend and then back at the map, "Same, though both the boy and my daughter can handle themselves if absolutely necessary."

Dare raised an eyebrow, but looked at the edge of the map, "So we have thirty one who can fight effectively and seven we need to keep an eye on." She pointed to a symbol close to where they were on the map. "If the legend is right, this is a ship, about ten kilometers east, and here," She pointed where she was looking moment ago. "It seems to say there is some kind of base, only a little more then two hundred kilometers northwest... We'll deal with that later." She half turned and called out behind her, "Buck! Your H.U.D., is it working?"

"Yeah! ...Why?" Buck asked as he messed with his helmet.

Dare raised her hands, "This display looks like I can link it up to our gear, so toss me my helmet." Buck nodded, grabbed the helmet, and tossed it over. Dare put it on and started to examine one of the table's control screens. "Okay... let's see if you got what I need... Eh... No... Oh, come on... Ah! Here we are... Hmm, the map is fairly basic, we'll probably going to have a few surprises along the way, but it'll have to do..." As she said this, she reached to her thigh pouch and took out a chord, then connected it to her helmet and the table. "Okay, we're in agreement, we go to this ship together?" The others nodded. "Good, let's get everyone armed and I'll see about sending the rest of you copies of the map."

As she finished, a distant roar was heard and River flinched. Everyone moved a bit faster as they went to their groups.

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, Reach (Epsilon Eridani-2), Eposz Continent, Viery Territory, Highland Mountains, center of original location of the former Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex_  
_0800, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

Jack O'Neill groaned as he sat up. He tiredly looked around the room he- or rather _they_ were in. He noted the many cots in the room, the familiar and unfamiliar faces, the fact they were all wearing some kind of armor, then finally the racks of many strange weapons and helmets along the sides of the room.

He looked to his left and quietly barked, "Carter. Carter!"

She jerked awake, sitting up as she groaned, "Sir?"

"Carter, why were we unconscious in a strange room… Again?"

The long haired blonde glanced at the rest of the room, then back to her CO, "I… Have no idea… But..." She pointed to the racks, "How often do we get left in a room full of weapons?"

O'Neill rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah... That is new. What's the last thing you remember?"

"...I think I was on my ship?" As she said this, her eyes drifted over the faces of the people laying near them. "And you were on Earth! How the hell…" She trailed off, staring at a nearby cot.

O'Neill stared at her for a moment and then followed her gaze, "Carter?"

"Yes sir?"

"Is that who I think it is?"

"I do believe so, but I would want to get a closer look before we jump to any conclusions."

"I don't know Carter; we've ran into some strange stuff over the years."

"We have, but how often do we run into someone that's been dead for years?" Jack opened his mouth, but Carter cut him off, "Don't answer that. But the only way for us to know…" She got up and slowly walked up to the cot they had been staring at. "…Is to take a look… Sir?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you wake up every one and get Daniel, Teal'c, and Jonas over here?" Jack gave her a look, "What? Just in case this turns out to be another super cyborg."

As he moved to wake the others, Jack thought, _'Fair enough…'_

Within a couple of minutes, Carter, O'Neill, Daniel, Teal'c, and Jonas were standing around the cot, while the others quietly, for some unhappily, stood away from the unfamiliar people and the cot that had most of their attention.

Jonas glanced down at it, looked to Carter, and quietly said, "Now are you sure this could be... Not her?"

"Maybe?"

"It's possible."

"We've seen stranger things."

"It is indeed possible that this may not be Janet Fraiser."

Jonas shrugged, "Okay then..." He glanced to other still occupied cots, "What about those five? Are we going to ignore them?"

O'Neill glanced at them and shrugged, "For the moment, yes. With how things have gone for us in the past, the suddenly not long dead person is the one that causes the most problems."

"...Okay, if you say so... How are we going to make sure that this is or is not Dr. Frasier again?"

"I will wake… Her up and you four will be ready to hold her down, just in case, and the others will be ready if things get out of hand." Carter responded.

O'Neill rubbed his hands together, "Well, let's get this party started. Teal'c, we'll take the arms. Daniel, you and Jonas will handle the legs. Cater if you would?"

They all moved close to the limbs in question and Carter shook the shoulder of the person on the cot.

Janet Fraiser gasped and sat up. As the five watched her warily as she blinked and glanced between them. "Jack?"

O'Neill glanced at Carter, who shrugged in response, "Yes Janet?"

"I might not be remembering this right, but didn't I die?"

"…Yes, yes you did. But it seems many odd things are going on right now."

"Huh." Janet got up from the cot and glanced around the room as the others backed away a bit. "Where are we?"

Here Carter cleared her throat, "That's one of the strange things we have to figure out."

Janet nodded, "Well, let get on that now, shall we?" She frowned as the other continued to eye her warily. "What's wrong?"

Daniel pushed up his glasses, "Janet?"

She turned to him, "Yes?"

"You were dead."

"So? If I remember correctly, _you_ were dead for a while as well."

"True, but I Ascended. You have been dead for years and we have no idea on how you are alive, how we got here, or weather or not those facts are related."

Janet started to retort, when a loud voice sounded through the room, "Testing, testing. One, two. One, two. Daniel, it's her and you guys have bigger things to worry about anyway. Everyone in this building will be attacked by a hostile alien force. To survive, you must work together, link up with two other groups, and finally make your way to Reach Rally Point Alpha. You will be able to request back up from there. This is not a drill and deadly force will be necessary in order for you all to survive. Have a good day."

O'Neill slowly looked to Cater, "...Did he just?"

Carter closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "It sounded like he did sir."

"That bastard."

"…For once, I agree."

Jack heard a cough from behind him. He turned and saw Vala giving him a pointed look while gesturing to the five unfamiliar people, who were now awake and standing at the side of the room.

Jack gave a small wave. "...Well hello."

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, Reach (Epsilon Eridani-2), Eposz Continent, Viery Territory, Highland Mountains, far east side of original location of the former Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex_  
_0800, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

Jorge groaned as he sat up and took in the details of the room his team, and some unfamiliar Spartans, were in. Noting Carter lying next to him, Jorge reached over and shook him awake, "Sir, get up, looks like we have a situation."

Carter nodded as he sat up and looked around, his gaze settling on one of the cot, "Wake up the rest of Noble, starting with Kat." Jorge nodded and moved to do so while Carter stood up and walked over to the cot he was focusing on. "Locke, get up."

Locke's eye snapped open and after darting around to scan the room, they settled on Carter and became confused. "Carter? I though you died on Reach?" Locke asked as he held his arm out to Carter.

Carter nodded, grabbed his arm, and helped Locke up. "Yeah, so did I. Do you know any of these Spartans?" Carter gestured to the four unfamiliar people still asleep.

Locke looked over at them and pointed as he spoke, "Those two are on a team I was putting together and she's a Three that specializes in stealth and hand-to-hand combat. ...Her, I don't know."

While Carter had gone to Locke, Jorge had woken up the rest of Noble and they waited while Carter spoke with Locke.

As they waited, Emile glanced around and looked at Jorge, "Hey, any idea where Six is?"

Thom A-293 gave Emile a confused look and cut off Jorge's response, "Emile? I'm right here."

Emile shook his head, "Sorry man, after you died, we got a replacement and I'm just wondering where she is." Thom nodded.

"We'll deal with that later, but for now wake these three up." Carter interjected, pointing to the Spartans Locke identified and then looked to Kat, "Any idea where we are or how we got here?"

While Emile woke them up, Kat shook her head in response as she worked on her gauntlet interface, "No sir, I'm not getting any form of signal here, but there is some form of camera in the corner there and she." Kat pointed at the unknown girl on the last cot. "Is giving off some form of strange energy signature." At this the everyone shifted towards the cot while reaching for weapons that weren't on them. "But! It doesn't look like she is a threat at the momen-"

Kat was cut off by a loud voice, "Well, most of you are awake, I guess that's good." As the voice said this, the girl of the cot woke up and looked around. "Now _all_ of you, that includes young Penny there, will be under attack by an alien force. In order for you all to survive, you must work together, link up with two other groups, and finally make your way to Reach Rally Point Alpha, you will be able to request backup from there. All of your weapons are in the next room. Speak with Penny and her Ghost to get info on your foe when you run into them. Have a good day."

After the voice finished, they all stared at the ceiling, until Emile broke the silence, "Did that fucker just?"

Jorge nodded, "I think he did. Boss? What are we going to do?"

Carter looked at the seemingly young girl, "Your name is Penny right?" She nodded. "What did the voice mean by 'Ghost'?"

Penny held out her hand and a small, white, and spiked machine appeared over it. "This is a Ghost sir. They assist Guardians like myself in our battle to defend Earth after the Collapse."

"Collapse?"

The Ghost's outer shell shifted and it spoke in a quiet female voice, "It is what we call the collapse of human society some seven hundred years ago. We have been fighting for survival even since."

The Spartans visibly paled at this and there was a moment of silence before a distant explosion shattered it.

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, Reach (Epsilon Eridani-2), Eposz Continent, Viery Territory, Highland Mountains, far northeast side of original location of the former Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex_  
_0740, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

"Wake up Spartans!"

John S-117 jolted, sitting up in the cot he was on and scanned the room, which had two other cots, both occupied by female Spartans, three racks, each holding weapons and a single helmet, and finally a closed doorway.

As John and the others slowly got off their cots, the voice that woke them continued, "You three have a mission of critical importance to the survival of the citizens of the United Nations. First you must follow a way point so you can secure a V.I.P. and fight off anything that attacks you along the way. After that you are to join two other groups of troops in the area to fight off an alien assault and make your way to Reach Rally Point Alpha, you can request backup from there. You will in attacked in two minutes, good luck."

The Spartans looked at each other and nodded. They moved to the labeled racks and put on their helmets, then gathered up their gear as they talked.

John looked over his H.U.D., processing the new information it displayed, "This is Sierra One One Seven reporting in, our first objective is nine hundred meters southwest of here, don't let anything keep us from our V.I.P., but be careful, the hostiles might not be Covenant." As he said this, he loaded up a MA5D and a M6D with eleven mags each, two combat knifes, four frag grenades, four plasma grenades, a satchel of C-12, and two personal bubble shield modules.

One of the other Spartans, a tall black armored S-II, stuck a modified rocket launcher on her back, "Sierra Three Four Five, code name Texas, reporting in, I got a modified M41 here, apparently it has five micro missiles that can each gut a Covenant Wraith and one spanker that can kill a light Covenant Scarab. If we run into anything big, I'll handle it. I have a MA5, two O.D.S.T. toothpicks, four frag grenades, four plasma grenades, and two personal bubble shields."

The last Spartan, a S-III in steel grey armor, hefted a modified sniper rifle, "Beta Three One Two, code name Wolf, reporting in, I got a modified SRS99 here, with three forty-round drums of HVAP rounds and ten eight-round mags of specialty rounds. A MA5, two combat knifes, four frags, two Plasma grenades, two E.M.P. grenades, and two personal bubble shields make up the rest of my gear." She glanced at the door and pointed her SR at it. "Contacts!"

Both John and Texas pointed their ARs at the door as it was blown open.

* * *

__Dzhem Tsarstvo System, Abeir-Toril, (Dzhem Tsarstvo-2), Far Eastern Continent Osse_, 200 Kilometers Northwest from Previous Scene on Abeir-Toril_  
_0800, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

"Okay people, you got things to do and attacks to survive! You all have to work together in order to survive, so that means no killing the people around you Rick. You will have to make your way to a nearby base, where the rest of your friends and family are, to help protect them."

Glenn Rhee winced at the loud voice that woke him up as he sat up. He glanced around the... Room? He saw a number of familiar faces and found Rick next to him. Glenn got up, walked to Rick, and helped him up, "How did we get here? What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, but first we need to know who's here, where we are, and what the hell is up with this armor we're all in," Rick responded as he scanned the room and setting his gaze on a group of cots. "Let's start with the people who should be dead."

Glenn's head snapped to follow his gaze, "What?! How?"

Almost as if responding Glenn's exclamation, there was a crackle over head, "Yes there are people that were once dead in there with you. For the moment, don't worry about that, because you guys are fifteen minutes from being attacked. The armor you are all wearing is advanced special forces gear, so be sure to put on your helmets when you get them so you can find out how to use it. Also figure out who's gonna drive the Mammoth you're in and get your asses moving!"

Glenn and Rick shared a look, then Rick looked over to Daryl and Michonne, who nodded. As they rushed up to stairs on the side of the room, Rick stopped mid-way up them, and called out to the crowd, "Carol get some people and shove these cots shoved off to the side. Sasha, Abraham, you two gather up everyone and find out who can drive something huge. Send those who can't up here."

"Hey Rick!" Daryl called from the next level. "We got weapons set aside for everyone! And send Carl and Enid up, it looks like they got something special up here."

"Alright!" Rick pointed to Carl and Enid, "You two get up here. Alright people let's do this." Rick finally looked to a middle aged man still sitting on his cot and looking at Rick expectantly. "You, we got to talk, get up here." Rick turned and walked up to the second level.

Daryl saw him and pointed to a shelf that had some gear on it. Rick nodded in thanks and walked over to it. He grabbed the rather large hand... Cannon? The barrel was black and silver, with the grip being actual wood. Rick looked it over and opened up the cylinder to see that it didn't have any rounds in it.

"Huh." Rick breathed out as he stared at it. He then lifted the gun up so that if there was something there in the cylinder, it would fall onto his hand. What fell out had him calling over his shoulder to the others, "Hey, guys, come look at this."

Michonne looked up from the strange handgun that had been with her sword, "What is it?"

Rick glanced back at her, "I don't know. I got this massive revolver here and the cylinder doesn't have any space for bullets. Instead it's this... Well, cylinder with glowing parts on it that fell out."

This really got the other's attention and they crowded around it.

Daryl reached over and picked it up, "What do you think it is?" He said as he held it close to his face.

Glenn shrugged as he looked at the rest of the stuff that was on Rick's shelf, "I don't know... But this might help," He finished as he picked up a small case that was to the side and Michonne looked over his shoulder, "It says 'burn cores'?"

Daryl snapped his fingers, "Hey, didn't that voice say somethin' about the helmets helping us know what's what? Maybe it'll tell you how to use this thing."

Rick looked to Michonne and she gave him a look that said 'eh, wouldn't hurt'. "Well alright." Rick said as he picked up 'his' helmet and put it on. He then held his hand out to Daryl and he quickly put the 'burn core' on Rick's hand. The helmet had a small window of text show up, it read:

Basic use of a hand cannon:

Place burn core of choice in cylinder. Close cylinder into main body of the hand cannon. Turn off safety. Fire as needed. Hand cannons generate its rounds inside of its self and this one can hold energy for up to 91 shots at a time. The hand cannon will collect the needed energy from the surrounding environment, it takes 12 seconds for 1 round's worth of energy to be gathered.

Another small icon appeared over the core in Rick's hand:

Note: Light burn core. Highly effective against Hive, which you will be fighting in ten minutes.

As soon as Rick finished reading the notes, he quickly put the gun together, put it in the holster on his right leg, and turned to Michonne, "The helmet will tell you anything you need to know about your weapons, gather your stuff up and go see what's up those stairs." Rick told her and the others as he pointed to another set of stairs that went up higher.

As he said this, Carl, Enid, and the unfamiliar man walked up onto that floor. Daryl saw them and gestured for Glenn and Michonne to help the kids, he then gestured for the man to come over to him and Rick.

Rick took off his helmet as the man walked over to him and Daryl and nodded to the man, "I'm Rick Grimes, this is Daryl Dixon, and you are?"

The man glanced at Glenn and Michonne, who were with Enid and Carl respectively, and he nodded, "I'm Professor Samuel Oak. I specialize in Pokémon research and training." Rick and Daryl gave him confused looks. "...You don't know what Pokémon are?" They shook their heads. "Well, that's... Troubling. Where I'm from, Pokémon are universally known. So, there is definitely something very strange going on."

Daryl snorted, "Damn right, there's somethin' strange goin' on."

Both Rick and Oak nodded, then Rick sighed, "Is there any way for your knowledge to be useful?"

"Hmm, it depends..." Oak said as he scanned the shelves, until he settled on one with his name. "If that case on my shelf over there is what I think it is, then my expertise will be more than just useful, it might be what keeps us all alive in this." Oak glanced at Rick, "May I?"

Daryl and Rick shared a look, "Go ahead. But, what are Pokémon? And how can they be useful?" Rick asked as Oak walked to his shelf.

Oak grabbed the case and opened, "Pokémon are, in general, highly intelligent creatures that can use extraordinary powers of great variety and strength. I guess you could call what they do magic," Oak explained with a grin. "And it seems I have thirty-six Pokémon here." He reached for a small red device, which he opened up and turned on, "Let's see if this Dex has any info on what Pokémon we have here..." Oak trailed as he quickly looked over the info on the device.

After a minute Rick glanced to the side, to see that Glenn and Michonne, along with Carl and Enid, were moving to check where the stairs led, "Hey, be careful, okay?" They all nodded and they carefully went up the steps. Rick turned back to the Professor, "What does it say?"

Oak gave them a vicious grin. "It details which Pokémon are stored here," He patted the case, which had thirty-six red balls set in foam indents. "And they are some of the best Pokémon I had trained over the years, each one of them are quite powerful in their own right. They should be extremely helpful to us."

Rick nodded, "All right." He turned to Daryl, "Go see what's going on down there and get people up here to gear up. We don't have muc-"

Rick was cut off by a distant, but blood chilling, roar cutting through the air.

* * *

End Author Notes:

Well there it is, cliff hangers all over the place. And unfortunately, its gonna be a while before I can write up chapter 3 and post it, which will be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months from now, sorry.

Please tell me what you think, otherwise I'll most likely take even longer in updating. Questions, comments, concerns, and constructive criticism are all welcome and wanted, unreasonable flames will be tossed in the fireplace to warm my house.

Bloodfox64 singing out.


	3. Let the Games Begin

Author's Note: I'm sooo sorry for taking so long with this. Live seem to always find a way to screw with me, so there has been all sorts of random things causing problems for me, thus making it hard for me to write. But I have done some editing for chapters one and two, and hopefully I'll be getting chapter 4 going here in two or three weeks, sooner if I'm lucky.

* * *

Chapter Title: Chapter 3: Let the Games Begin

Chapter Quote:

F.E.A.R. has two meanings -

Forget Everything And Run

OR

Face Everything And Rise

The choice is yours.

– Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar

**Legend:**

"Normal Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

Writing

_"Speech in Different Languages"_

(Author's Comments)

*Motions/Actions Done During Speech*

**Chapter Start**

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, Reach (Epsilon Eridani-2), Eposz Continent, Viery Territory, Highland Mountains, far northeast side of original location of the former Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex_  
_Approx. 0742, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

John and Texas opened fire through the haze of splinters and electricity. After a moment nothing came through and seeing as nothing was _too_ close on their radar, John nodded to Texas. While Wolf darted to the side of the room and out of the line of fire, Tex and John swiftly approached the door and John glanced past the right side of the doorway, spying a large clearing filled with a number of strange aliens. The TEAMCOM icon on John's HUD gave a pulse as he gave the command to activate it, causing the icon to split into icons for Texas and Wolf.

John looked at Texas, "A dozen unknown contacts, approaching fast, you know what to do."

Texas' status icon on John's HUD blinked green in acknowledgement, then John "counted down" via the status lights: red, amber, green.

Texas and John burst from the doorway, firing on the hostiles on the left and right respectively. It was over so quickly that none of the creatures had a chance to get a shot off.

Wolf joined them in the clearing as more of the aliens poured out of the forest and the Spartans swiftly dispatched them as they entered the clearing.

After a minute of this, the flow of aliens stopped and the Spartans, with Wolf standing in-between John and Texas, were left surrounded by dozens of bodies.

The Spartans closely watched the tree line when a humming buzz came from the far sides of the clearing.

In normal situations Spartan-IIs have a reaction time that is estimated to be 20 milliseconds, meaning that they can react to something in one fiftieth of a second. And in combat Spartan-IIs enter a state of mind known as "Spartan Time", which allows them to think, react, and see things such that everything around them is moving in slow motion, allowing them to fight at a level no normal being could hope to match., but it should be noted that the Spartan-IIIs are known to be able to react and move just a step below the S-IIs.

So when swift transparent figures charged the Master Chief and Texas, they reacted before their attackers could do anything. Texas dispatched her attacker with a lightning fast kick to the chest, stopping it in its tracks, and a trio of bullets to its head, ensuring that it wouldn't be getting back up. On the other hand, the Master Chief simply threw one of his combat knifes into his attacker's head, instantly dropping it.

John quickly grabbed his knife, seeing as his radar indicated that a lone hostile was advancing on the clearing, while Texas readied her MA5 and Wolf backed further into the clearing, with her sniper rifle aimed where the hostile was likely to enter the clearing.

A large, silver being burst through the underbrush, it then stopped and gave a guttural roar as the large cannon on its shoulder started to glow brighter.

John and Texas opened fire on it before it finished its roar, staggering it while a blue energy field surrounded it. Seeing that whatever it was wasn't going down, Wolf aimed her sniper rifle, found its head, and pulled the trigger.

The high velocity, armor-piercing round screamed across the clearing into the figures head, which disappeared in a small, but fiery explosion. The Spartans, keeping their weapons trained on the collapsed figure, waited a moment, but seeing no movement and that the radar was clear, John gestured for Texas to approach the large creature.

Texas quickly the alien and nudged the figures leg, then quickly stepping back, keeping her MA5 aimed at it. Getting no reaction from it, Wolf switched from her sniper rifle to her MA5, then they all turned on the built-in flashlights and gathered it. The creature had been tall, large than the other aliens at roughly nine feet, and heavily armed; literally and metaphorically. It had four arms, thick armor plating, and next to it was some form of shoulder held cannon.

Texas knelt next to it and nudged the weapon, her hand snapping back as it sparked at her, "Whatever these things are, fighting them is going to be a pain if they all use direct energy weapons like this. Though why did its head go up like that?"

John and Wolf had been scanning the surrounding area and when Texas spoke, Wolf looked down at alien, "That is a good question for later, but considering how the Covenant works, how heavily armed this thing is, and how lightly armed the other hostiles were, we can mark this one as high ranking combatant."

John nodded and looked to the east, "The sun will be rising soon, let's get to our V.I.P. before it does."

They turned off their flashlights and jogged around the building, then up the hill it was at the base of. To avoid inadvertently running into any more hostiles, they jogged through the trees, keeping their weapons up and scanning the forest as they did so. When they got to the top of the hill, they carefully looked over it, and Wolf switched back to her sniper rifle.

After a several minutes of scanning the long clearing and the dense forest around it, they got up and Wolf looked out behind them, "There are a number of heat signatures heading this way... There's a larger signature half a klick out... Looks like some form of walker."

"And the path to the V.I.P.?" John asked, still watching their surroundings.

"There are approximately four hundred drones two hundred and fifty meters out to the northwest and southeast, but the immediate path to the V.I.P. is clear."

"Joy," Texas murmured as she looked up at the dark, pre-dawn sky. "Is it just me or does this world feel familiar?"

"It does," John confirmed, "but Reach was glassed years ago..."

Wolf snorted as she continued to keep an eye on the walker, "Yeah and I died when she Fell." The other's heads twitched in her direction, but they kept a look out for any contacts, and she shrugged, "I don't know what happened, but if I'm still alive and it's been years, being on a pristine Reach isn't the strangest thing that has happened."

John nodded, mentally pushing aside his confusion, and turned toward the direction of the way point, "We'll deal with this later. Move out, triple time."

They ran down the other side of the hill, their armored boots thundering on the ground like machine guns, and soon they were outside another small building, which was situated at the base of another large, rocky hill. As they walked up to the door, John signaled to Texas to go first.

She kicked in the door, then stepped out of the way as John and Wolf covered the door. Seeing no movement, they silently filed in, following a long hallway 'til they got to another door. They cleared the doorway, then slowly descended a wide spiral staircase. At the bottom was an open doorway that had light pouring through it. When the trio walked through the doorway, they saw that it led to a small, if plain, brightly lit room. In the middle was a large stone pedestal with a female figure in blue armor and a rack with weapons, equipment, and a helmet on it. (Note #1)

The three Spartans cautiously approached the person, then John saw her face and he stopped, letting his arms fall. Wolf and Texas shared a look as John stood there, then Wolf moved to see the figure's face.

She froze and breathed out, "Cortana?"

Texas' head tilted in confusion, _'Cortana? The _A.I._?'_

Suddenly the figure gasped, then she started coughing. She then tried to sit up, but fell back, panting.

John slowly put his AR on his back, activating the magnetic pads to keep it there. "Cortana?"

She looked at him wide eyed, "John?" She rasped, "...What's going on? I feel so strange..." Her struggling to get up again snapped John out of it and he helped her sit up. She looked down at her hand in confusion, "What? How am I...?" Cortana trailed off as and looked up at John, "...Human?"

An explosion overhead interrupted his response and shook the room, making dust fall from the ceiling.

Texas walked over to the rack and grabbed the helmet. She then walked over to John and handed Cortana the helmet, "Put this on, we need to you get ready and for us to get going."

Cortana looked at the helmet, then John. He nodded, "We need to go, there is a lot going on and we don't have much time. I'll fill you in as you get ready." He looked at Wolf, "You and Texas check things out, we'll be up in a few minutes."

As Wolf and Texas headed up the stairs, John helped Cortana off the pedestal and over to the rack. On it was an O.D.S.T. pistol, a combat knife, a pouch of tech gear, a sticky detonator with three dozen grenades, and a bottle with a clear liquid it and a label that simply read: FOR CORTANA, DRINK IF FEELING WEAK

John grabbed the bottle, opened it, and handed it to Cortana, "Here."

Cortana shakily grabbed the bottle and took a sip. Her eyes widened and she eagerly drank the rest it a few quick gulps.

She took a few deep breaths and looked at John, "I feel much better now, any idea what that was?"

He shook his head and handed her the pistol as he responded, "No, but if whoever left it wanted you dead, you wouldn't be here."

"True," Cortana murmured as took the M6 pistol and put it on her right thigh, the magnetic pad holding it.

Suddenly there was an explosion and rapid gun fire. After a moment there was another explosion and several bursts of fire, then finally silence.

"SITREP," John said over the TEAMCOM as he handed Cortana the tech pouch.

"The boom we heard earlier was a drop ship of some sort coming in." As Texas spoke, John could hear the sound a rocket launcher being loaded in the background. "When we got up here it was letting out hostiles similar to the one we ran into earlier. I hit the engines, but more contacts were coming out as it went down. So I hit it again and we mopped up what was left."

John looked at Cortana, seeing that she had put on her helmet, he nodded to the rest of the gear and she started to gather it up. John gave a mental command to the TEAMCOM to connect with Cortana, making an additional icon for her, then he walked to the doorway, "We'll be coming up in a minute, Cortana isn't feeling as weak as before, so we should have an easier time linking up with any nearby units."

Cortana walked next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "John, a U.N. BATTLENET just activated. I can access it to talk to a group of Spartans... It says they are Noble Squad... Oddly it labels us as Spartan Team Horsemen..."

John gestured to the stairs and they started up them, while they did Wolf spoke up, "Sir? I can't say why it has us labeled like that, but I was assigned to Noble just before Reach fell..." She paused for a moment, then continued. "They are Spartans and they won't let Reach fall. Not this time."

"...Good. Cortana, connect with them and find out where they are while we find some cover, we'll deal with the names later." John ordered as he and Cortana exited the building, then approached Texas and Wolf.

Texas turned and gestured to the hill they had been under, "There's some large rocks up there that should give us _some_ cov-."

Texas stopped as she jerked her head to the side and out of the way of an electrified blue streak.

The obvious attacked caused the Spartans to mentally shift into Spartan Time.

So as the subsonic round flew pass Texas' head, she and John were following the round's vapor trail back to the shooter, with Wolf and Cortana doing the same a few milliseconds later.

They found the shooter nearly 900 meters away at the at the top of the hill where they had been a few minutes before. The shooter its self looked similar to the creatures they had killed earlier; four arms, built-in breathing apparatus, and odd plate/clothe armor that was silver with black accents.

Then Wolf found the target with her Sniper Rifle System 99 - Series 5 and fired a single shot.

The fifty-seven caliber High Velocity Armor Piercing round has a muzzle velocity of 2,058 meters per a second, so thus our quartet of characters were able to track the bullet as it found its way to the sniper's head, which in turn exploded into a small, but magnificent ball of fire.

Wolf scanned the top of the hill for more targets as the others made their way up the hill and into cover, until the little icon on her HUD that represented John blinked green, indicating that they were in place and will cover her while she made her way up.

As Wolf did so, a veritable wave of the shorter aliens ran over the top of the hill. John and Texas opened up with their MA5Ds, picking off the new contacts with short two or three round bursts and unparalleled precision. Wolf ducked behind the other side of the boulder Texas was behind and joined them in picking off the hostiles with her MA5.

As Texas ducked as she reloaded her weapon, Cortana muttered, "Gotcha!"

Texas grabbed a frag grenade and tossed it into a large cluster of aliens, and at the same time she mentally sent Cortana a message. It showed on Cortana's H.U.D. as Texas' TEAMCOM icon blinking in Morse code for a question mark in an amber light. In context this meant, 'what do you mean?'.

"Oh," Cortana grinned, "I just got into these guy's comms and I can track where all of their drones and walkers are with it. Speaking of, it looks like there are masses of drones in each of the tree lines, I think they are trying to keep us contained. They didn't pick up signs of any living beings left on the planet when they scanned it, so didn't expect us to be here and they are panicking for some reason..."

"Let's give them a more reasons to panic." Texas grabbed a pair of plasma grenades, primed them, and lobbed one into each of the tree lines and, for a brief moment, two miniature suns lit up the forest.

The molten craters where surrounded by flames, consuming the tree lines and drones started to drop like flies, the little electrical explosions knocking down the already damaged trees.

John, Texas, and Wolf mopped up the last of the aliens as Wolf piped in, "How can you understand their chatter?"

Cortana shrugged, "My translations program had these guy's language in it, so for me these 'Eliksni' are going to be easier to deal with than the Covenant ever was…" She trailed off as a rhythmic thudding sounded from over the hill.

A tank sized insectoid walker parked itself on the top of the hill, aiming its large turret at them and a long visible red laser found them.

The walker's fiery shell crawled through the air and the four leapt off to the sides of the hill, the cluster of boulders they had been in disappeared in a magnificent conflagration.

As she fell, Texas placed her MA5 on her back and shouldered her M41 rocket launcher. Then, as she hit the ground, Texas trained the M41 on the walker and fired a single 102mm rocket.

Due to the rocket's low velocity, the members of Spartan Team Horsemen were able to get rush back up the hill and behind more boulders, and just before the C-12 enhanced rocket impacted the walker.

C-12 is a powerful plastic explosive compound; a 4-inch cube could obliterate a 'modern' five story building. (Note #2) So when the C-12 enhanced rocket hit the walker, it wasn't just destroyed, the walker and the top of the hill were vaporized.

The massive explosion shook the ground, while the powerful pressure wave extinguished the burning tree lines. There was a long moment of silence as the four climbed back to their feet, before Cortana turned to Texas.

"I'm usually not one to say this, but don't you think that was over doing it?"

Texas shrugged as she reloaded the M41, "Didn't want to risk it, so I made sure it would stay down."

Cortana shook her head and sat behind another rock, "Try not to do it again, we might need those things for later, I'm going to put us in contact with Noble now, so try make sure I'm not bothered for a few minutes."

The others nodded as a several group of the small aliens ran into the clearing.

Cortana tuned out the gun fire as she worked her comm. systems, "This Spartan Team Horsemen, attempting to contact Spartan Squad Noble, can you hear me?"

* * *

_On board U.N. flagship the _Protocol  
_0700, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

Preston Jeremiah Cole groaned as he sat up in the chair he was in. He opened his eyes and looked around, quickly realizing that he was sitting in the command chair on the spacious bridge of a warship.

A pedestal next to him hummed to life and a hologram of a Native American man in a sharp suit appeared, "Admiral Cole, I am ship board A.I. Admin. You are aware of what is going on?"

Cole stood up and stretched, "Yes, I'm aware of our... _Odd_** situation. I want the specifications on the ship I'm in, how many ships are in the fleet and whether or not they're warships."**

"Just one moment sir, the specs will appear on the set of digital glasses in the left armrest of the command chair and the fleet info will appear on the main screen. Would you like for me to wake the bridge crew?"

"Please do, thank you Admin." The Admiral responded as he sat down and opened the arm rest. He picked up the glasses, put them on, and then turned them on with a mental command via his neural lace.

It displayed the basic info on the ships armor, what it was armed with, its current crew, general info, and other relevant info:

**_Infinity_-class battle carrier:** _Protocol_, IFF tag CA/B-02

**Dimensions:** 5,694.2m long, 833.3m wide, 1,041.2m tall

**Hull:** 4.9m Naquadah/Carbon/Trinium alloy plating &amp; is equipped with energy shields &amp; cloaking

**Propulsion/Power:** 3 Primary Sub-light engines/Asgard intergalactic hyperdrive/4 Mark XII Naquadah Generators

**Armament:** Main Weapons: 1 super M.A.C./2 heavy M.A.C.s - Secondary Weapons: 48 Onager mini-M.A.C.s/250 Rapier missile pods/350 Archer missile pods/500 Howler missile pods - Point Defense: 720 laser batteries/72 EMP cannons - Nuclear: 8 Shiva missiles/16 Rudra missiles/32 Hyperion missiles/40 Hornet mines

**Complement:** 25,392 personnel/12 Puddle Jumpers/100 GA-TL1 Longsword fighters/500 F-41 Broadsword fighters/500 F-302 Saber fighters/2,000 F-99 Wombat drones/10 _Strident_-class heavy frigates

A pleased grin spread across Cole's lips as he reviewed the info, _'Oh the things I'll be able to do with this ship alone...'_

He closed out the info and turned on the glass's H.U.D. as he got up and approached the main screen. As he looked over the information displayed, the bridge crew assembled on the left side of the room, and once they were all there, Admin "coughed" to get Cole's attention.

He looked over the nine officers that were standing at attention, who also each had a pair of data glasses on, as he looked over them each of their basic info came up.

"At ease." Cole finally said and they all visibly relaxed, "I know all of your names, ranks, and positions, but seeing as we have a lot to do, we'll get to know each other later. For now, get to your stations and get to work." He turned back to the main screen as the moved across the bridge. "Oh and you three on operations, make sure the entire crew is awake and ready to go."

The three, Lieutenants Bart Richards, Jackie Gonzales, and Alan Wang, chorused, "Yes sir!" in response.

The First Mate and X.O., Captain Clyde Blart, stepped next to him and looked over the main screen, "It looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us sir."

Cole glanced at Blart, "Indeed we do Captain. How familiar are you with the _Protocol's_ capabilities?"

Blart shrugged, "Personally? Not at all. But I've read some of the after action reports from the _Infinity_, her and her sister-ships will be extremely useful in driving off the fleet we are supposed to face."

Cole nodded, concentrated for a moment, "I sent the _Protocol's_ basic info to your glasses." He glanced to the to one of the stations and called out, "Okay, report. Engineering?"

"It seems the guys in engineering have been up for a while, so all four reactors are one hundred percent," Lt. Commander Joan Carmichael called over her shoulder.

"Good, weapons and point defense?"

Lt. Commanders Clark and Clare Willis shared a look, before Clare spoke up, "We are good at weapons, heavy and super macs are fully charged and ready to go sir. All missile pods are also ready, as are the Onagers."

Clark picked up where his twin left off, "Point defense lasers are ready, the ehmps are also up and running, sir. And the Wombats are on standby for Admin to take control if needed."

Cole gave him an almost exasperated look and Clark shrugged, "Electro-magnetic pulse weapons, sir."

The Admiral sighed, "Right, navigation?"

Lieutenant Spencer Blake waved a hand over his shoulder, "We're good and ready for anything you like, sir."

"Okay, Comms?"

Lieutenant Grace Harper turned to look at Cole, "Communications are fully operational, sir." The console gave a series of rapid beeps and she turned back to it with a surprised look. "Sir? All of the other _Infinity_ classes are hailing us, as is one of the Covenant super carriers... Should I put them up on the main screen?"

Cole nodded, "Do it." The main screen adjusted so the fleet listing was still shown as ten windows opened to show six men, most of them older, a Sangheili in ornate gold armor, and three... Ponies.

Cole eyed the three odd beings as he spoke, "Well gentlemen, and lady, we have found ourselves in a rather unique situation."'

This statement elected numerous responses, but the underlying consensus was: no shit.

Cole gave his First Mate, who had let a chuckle escape, a look. Clyde shrugged, "We're in a galaxy far, far away, sir. I believe that is the _very definition_ of a unique situation."

The Sangheili nodded, "Indeed it is. I am Thel 'Vadam, Arbiter of the Sangheili. Lord Hood, your people make up most of the fleet, how shall we proceed?"

Terrence Hood nodded, "Okay, Admiral Cole you and the Arbiter will coordinate the finer points of our strategy here next. Each of us will be in charge of a section of the fleet, with all non-combat vessels in the middle. But the most important ones are the City Ships, they have the grand majority of our people on them… Keep this in mind people, we're in this together or not at all. Cole, you and the Arbiter are up."

Cole cleared his throat, "According to the knowledge that was placed in all of our heads, we have two hours to get all of our ships in place before our latest opponents arrive. So this is what we will do…"

The meeting went on for a short time, but in the back of the all of their minds, they knew that no matter what happened next, nothing would ever be the same.

* * *

_Urs Trinary System, Sanghelios (Urs-4), Qivro Continent, Nuusra Territory_  
_0800, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

Celestia shot up, gasping for air, shuddering as she tried to forget visions of a massive, _timeless_ beast and legions of lifeless red eyes.

After several minute and having calmed her breathing, Celestia observed her surroundings, she was lying on simple, but comfortable bedding and was in a large white tent along with several other ponies. As she stood up and stretched, she found that she knew all of them personally.

Walking to one of them in particular, she took a moment to stretch her wings, "Ah, much better," Celestia sighed, before nudging the sleeping pony's side.

The pony's head jerked up, looking for what disturbed them, "Huh?"

Celestia gave a slight chuckle, "Cadence, we have much to do and very little time to do it."

"I know, I know," Cadence grumbled. She sleepily stood up and stretched, "Why did we have to end up in this situation and have to wake up at the start of it I'll never know..."

Celestia gave her patented knowing smile, "Indeed." She moved to the next pony and nudged them, "Captain Armor, get up, there is much to do."

Shining Armor groaned, "Yes ma'am…" He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Orders, ma'am?"

"I need you and Cadence to scout outside while I wake my students."

"On it, ma'am." Shining finished his stretching and shuffled over to the exit and held open the flap, "Princess?"

Cadence nodded and walked past him, stepping out into the hot and humid air.

Meanwhile, Celestia was using her magic to nudge three ponies and a young dragon awake, "Wake up my students, we have much to do." She grinned at the chorus of groans her students gave as they slowly got up.

There was a slight crackle of magic at the top of the tent, "Ah, good, you guys are up. Since that taken care of…" The sound of shifting papers came from the background, "Anyhow, you seven, when the other two get back that is, will be working with humans of a supernatural nature. You and they will be attacked by a large force of a bio-mechanical collective known as the Vex. You will have to hold off these teleporting machines until back up from the rest of your allies gets to you… Oh and you'll be attacked in about…Three hours, good luck and don't die."

Celestia's horn glowed a brilliant white as she used her magic to grab Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, after a moment they came flying through the tent flap with alarmed expressions, "I apologize for the suddenness of that, but our situation just became far more dire than we originally thought. Here's the what changed…"

After Celestia told them what their apparent host had said, the group rushed out of the tent and down the arid path between the rocks.

Spike, who was on Twilight Sparkle's back as the they made their way, looked around them curiously and found their surroundings to be different, but not out of place; that is, until he took a moment to really look at the sky.

"Uh, guys? I think we might have a problem…" Spike murmured in disbelief.

Even though Twilight heard Spike, she still kept her eyes on the path, "What is it Spike?"

Spike shakily pointed up, "The sky! It's yellow!"

The ponies collectively skidded to a halt and looked up.

"…How did we not notice that?" Twilight deadpanned as they gazed at the saffron sky.

"I don't know, but I don't think we're in Equestria any more…" Starlight Glimmer, one of Celestia's three students, muttered.

"We will figure this out later, but now we have to get to the humans and prepare for the worst," Celestia reminded the group as she started back down the path.

As they continued along the small canyon pass, Starlight trotted up to Celestia's side, "Princess?"

Celestia glanced at her student, "Yes?"

"The… Voice said that these… Vex teleport, right?"

"He indeed did, do you have an idea on how to deal with that problem?" Celestia asked, knowing Starlight's special talent was space/time magic.

Starlight Glimmer sighed, "…Yes, at least I might… But Twilight, Sunset, and I haven't tried using it over a large area yet and well…"

"You are unsure if it would even work."

"Yes, we've done a number of small scale tests, but you know how such spells can act on different scales."

"Indeed, but I am sure that you three will come through for us… Speaking of, I'm surprised that three of you would work together so willingly, considering how competitive you all are," Celestia said with a knowing smile.

Starlight blushed and ducked her head, "Well, I did try to work on it by myself, but in the end I had to get Twilight to help power it and get Sunset to try teleporting, since both Twilight and I were busy holding up the spell…"

The Princess nodded, "Ah. Still, I'm glad the three of you were able to get past your differences, no matter how grudgingly it was. Now, how long will it take you to set up the spell?"

Starlight tilted her head, "…Hmm… Anywhere from ten to twenty-five minutes; it depends on how large of an area we're dealing with."

"Very well, go over it with the others, it seems we are almost out of this pass," The Sun Princess nodded ahead of them, where they could see a distant beach.

"Yes Princess," Starlight responded and trotted to Celestia's other two personal students.

* * *

_Dzhem Tsarstvo System, Abeir-Toril, (Dzhem Tsarstvo-2), Far Eastern Continent Osse, En Route to Location Gamma_  
_Approx. 0828, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

"Mal! Duck!" River called over the comm. Mal did as he was told and River shot the skeletal creature, which had been leaping at Mal from higher up on the rocky ridge they were on, in the head, making is burst into electrified ash.

Mal stood up, looking where the creature had come from and shot two more in the head with his pistol, "Thanks. But I got to ask, why do you get to have the cool lightning pistols while I'm stuck with this?" He asked, holding up said gun, then whipping it to the side and into the head of yet another one of the horrid creatures and getting covered in even more ash.

River shrugged, holstering her two sidearms, and climbed the rock that Mal was next to, putting her at the top of the ridge they were on. She had her H.U.D. zoom in as she looked around, before settling in the direction of the rising sun. Off in the distance was an all too familiar shape and a mega-watt smile spread across River's face.

She jumped down as Mal shot another creature and drew her sidearms, "Mal, you know the ship we're heading to? It's the _Serenity_."

Mal hit the next creature in the shoulder, making it stagger, "What?! As in my _Serenity_?" He asked as he finished off the wounded being and River started down the ridge. "Shit." He cursed as he followed her and he activated the comm., "Zoë, how are you guys holding up?"

The comm. crackled, "We're doing fine sir. So far we've only gotten more of these small, skeletal ones. So, what's the news from your end?"

"The ship is the _Serenity_ and we are seven point nine kilometers away," River interjected as Mal and her got to the bottom of the ridge. River glanced at Mal, "It's clear."

Mal gave her a look, then he shrugged and they jogged to the group of rocks the rest of the crew were at. Jayne and Zoë helped them up onto the bolder as a screeching crack rang out overhead.

A sickly green and black vortex appeared and a black craft that was an elongated t shape crept out of it.

Dutch stepped out from behind an outcropping, hefting his Spartan Laser, "I got this..." The weapon gave an electronic whirl and the front started gave a crimson glow as he held the trigger. "Say hello to my illuminating friend," Dutch muttered and released it, letting loose a flash of crimson light.

The dark craft erupted into a brilliant explosion, sending it careening to the side, but the craft was still limping and a line of red light along the bottom herald a large group of the creatures. The smallest of the creatures let out a chorus of screeches and a much larger one with a sword roared.

The O.D.S.T.s and the Spartans opened up on the ghastly creatures, quickly eliminating the smaller ones, but the mid-sized ones fired purple bolts of energy as they charged, making the soldiers duck.

River stuck one of her side arms out and in a flash shot all five of the medium creatures in the head, making them burst into ash.

Seeing her do that, Zoë aimed her new weapon and fired a bolt of fire at the massive sword wielding beast, staggering it and then it burst into ash, leaving behind the sword.

As they slowly crept down from the rocks, Buck turned to Micky, "Hey, set some charges and destroy that ship."

Micky's head tilted to the side, "You sure boss? Couldn't we try to use it?"

Buck shook his head, "No, I have a feeling that trying would get us nowhere. These… Things are far too nasty for us to be able to just hop in and go."

Micky nodded and jogged to the downed ship, while Buck called to over to the rest of the troops, "Hey, Wolf Pack, cover him." He then looked to everyone else and called out, "The rest of us, let's start moving out!"

While Buck was doing this, River had walked to where large beast had died. She stared at the sword, hearing the distant echoes of the many thousands of beings that it had slain. River finally shook her head, now blocking out the screams and picked up the massive blade, "I will need you later," she whispered as she placed in of the weapons pad on her back.

River got a number of looks as they all started jogging again and Mal came up alongside her, "…Sooo?"

River continued to look ahead as they slowly, but surely made their way to the _Serenity_, "I will need it later, to give back some of the pain these monsters have inflicted."

Mal nodded and was silent for a moment, "What did you pick up from the blade?"

"…That these abominations are an ancient evil that will stop at nothing to kill us all."

"Oh, what pleasant creatures… Anything else?"

River sighed, "I'm going to tell this to everyone, so give me a moment…" River slipped into a professional mode and spoke over the comms "Okay everyone. I was able to pick up some information from this sword. They are called the Hive and they are old… Older than even Earth-That-Was… They will not give any mercy, so don't even try to negotiate with them. The small ones are Thrall, the medium ones are Acolytes, and the big ones are Knights. There are three others that we have yet to run into, Wizards, Ogres, and Cursed Thrall. Wizards float, have energy shields, and throw bolts of lightning. The Ogres are massive beasts that project numerous bolts of purple energy from their heads. They can and will take massive amounts of damage, and do not get close to them. The Cursed Thrall glow blue and explode, again, do not let them get close to you. That is all I've been able to dig up safely."

There was a symphony grumbling over the news as they all tried to rap their heads around it all, until Micky piped up, "Sir? Charges are set and we are catching up to you guys."

Buck shook his head and responded, "Good, when you guys get here, light it up."

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, Reach (Epsilon Eridani-2), Eposz Continent, Viery Territory, Highland Mountains, far east side of original location of the former Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex_  
_Approx. 0802, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

The Spartans bust into action as Carter barked out orders, "Jun, you and Jorge get out there and check things out!" Jun and Jorge ran into the next room, quickly grabbed their gear, and ran out of the building as Carter continued, "the rest of you, let's gear up and be ready for anything." He followed the others into the next room and gathered up his gear as another explosion rang out, causing a small tremor. Carter put on his helmet, open up the squad comm. channel and barked, "Report!"

Jun chuckled in response, "It was a massive explosion to the north sir. What appeared to be a rocket hit some sort of mid-sized walker and completely vaporized the walker and the top of the hill it was on. I have no idea wha-" A sudden rushing sound cut Jun off, followed by Jun cursing and the sound of his sniper rifle firing. "Jorge can you take care of the rest of those bastards for me?"

There was a pause before Jorge's voice was heard, "No problem."

Every one paused as Jorge's turret started to rapidly boom outside, and Jun finally came back on, "Sorry about that sir, a sniper almost took my head off there and Jorge is taking care of some other hostiles that were trying to sneak up on us."

Before he could continue, a female voice came over the comm., "This Spartan Team Horsemen, attempting to contact Spartan squad Noble, can you hear me?"

As she said this, Carter gestured for Kat to come over to him, "This is Noble One." He responded warily, "To whom am I speaking?"

"This is Cortana. I am here with Spartans 117, Wolf, and Texas. We just took out a hostile walker and we believe that you are one of the two units we are to link up with."

Carter muted his mic for a moment as he turned to Kat, "How is she taking to us?"

Kat shrugged as she looked at her gauntlet's display, "I think that the other room was temporarily blocking the Battlenet that is up… But as far as I can tell, this is the real thing."

Carter nodded and unmuted his mic, "Okay Cortana, we need to rendezvous, what is your situation?"

Some gunfire came over the comm., "We have some hostiles, but we can move out at for the moment… Wait, I'm picking up the third group… A special purpose squad called Es Gee One, are you familiar with a unit of that designation?"

Carter frowned, "No… Can you talk to them?"

"Yeah, just a moment… There we go. This is Spartan team Horsemen and Spartan squad Noble attempting to contact special purpose squad SG-1, can you hear us?"

* * *

_Dzhem Tsarstvo System, Abeir-Toril, (Dzhem Tsarstvo-2), Far Eastern Continent Osse, En Route to Location Delta_  
_Approx. 0830, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

Rick watch their surroundings as he stood at the front of the oversized vehicle they were using, tracking the next wave of the boney monstrosities that where hounding the group.

"Hey, Rick!"

He turned to Tara as she jogged up to him, "How are things down there? Is your dad going to be able to keep this thing going?"

Tara worriedly glanced at the approaching creatures, "My dad says that the armor and tires can handle anything those monsters dish out, but he's worried about the bay doors."

"He thinks they could pry them open?"

"The energy those things had on their claws is worrying."

Rick nodded, then turned to look toward the back of the vehicle and shouted, "Oak! You got anything that can keep these thing off our backs?"

Oak, who was on the short observation tower, "Yeah! I'll come down and show you!"

He then jumped down and jogged up to them. Oak opened up the case hanging over his shoulder and took out four red and white balls.

Oak nodded at the behind them, "These four should help, but the other should still keep their eyes open." He then caused two of the balls to expand and tossed them on the ground.

A bright flash of light and then there were two large, but different, birds. Oak clapped his hands to catch their attention, "Okay, guys. We're in a hostile area and I need you to keep an eye out for anything big and ugly coming our way. If you can, take a pot shot at them, but be careful, we have no idea what these things are capable of, other than that they are nasty."

The birds nodded waddled to the sides of the vehicle and took off in a huge gusts of wind, flying off in opposite directions. Oak expanded the last two balls and tossed down. After another flash of light, a large orange, dragon-like creature and a purple/ black, dragon/bat mix were revealed.

They focused on Oak, who nodded, "You guys heard what I told the others, I need you two to roast whatever comes close to this vehicle. Don't hover, just strafe them and hit them from afar."

The orange one puffed out some smoke from its nose, while the bat like one nodded, and they took off, flying to the nearest group of creatures.

Rick nodded in appreciation as the two proceeded to bathe the horde in fire. Rick turned to Oak and Tara as the dragons moved to circle around their transport, "I'm going to check in with Dale and see if he's got anything with the radio." He turned back to the watch tower, "Sasha! I'm going down, you and Daryl work with the Professor here and hold things down!"

There was a distant roar as Rick walked down the stairs and to one of the manned terminals. He patted the person on the back, "Any luck Dale?"

Dale jumped a little, but nodded, "Yeah and you would be surprised to know who I talked to."

"Really? Who was it?"

"Beth and she says that Judith is with her, safe and sound."

Rick sagged with relief, "…Good. What else does she have to say?"

"The base that they are at is also under attack, but the… Interesting people and soldiers there are handling it, for the moment that is. But we should be able to help once we get there."

Rick gave Dale a look, "What do you mean by interesting?"

"…There are what she called Drow and Dwarves there alongside soldiers and they are all using advanced armor and weapons. From the sounds of it, most likely the same stuff we have."

"I don't care what they are, they're in the same boat as us and are keeping our people safe… Do you know how far away we are?"

Dale nodded, "Yeah, we're about thirteen kilometers from the base, but that isn't what worries me."

"What is it?"

"How are we going to get through the creatures attacking the base?"

"We'll figure that out when we get there." As he finished, a chorus of screeching cracks came from outside. Rick put a gauntleted hand on Dale's shoulder and got a nod in response.

He quickly ran up to the outer level of the massive vehicle, where a symphony of weapons fire and explosions filled the air.

Rick rushed up, grabbing the hand cannon at his hip, thinking back to earlier when he first picked it up, 'Highly effective, eh…'

He jogged to a stop next to Daryl at the railing, who was firing at a huge monstrosity.

It staggered slightly, quickly recovering it thrust its right arm forward and a… Mass of almost flaming darkness phased into place, shielding it.

Daryl and Rick shared a look and they both started to fire their weapons at it. Daryl's Assault Rifle seemed to nothing, but the impacts from Rick's massive gun caused the mass to shudder slightly. After a moment they stopped, watching the creature as their transport moved pass it, then finally the mass faded away and Rick whipped his gun up and fired a single shot at the monster's head. The being's head snapped back and its body then burst into ash.

Daryl gave a whistle in appreciation and nudged Rick with his elbow. "Nice shot. These things dropped off a fuck ton of those monsters and more are comin', so let's get to it," he said, bringing Rick's attention to the dozen t-shaped drop ships that were flying to the sides of their transport.

Then a red light ran across the bottom of each ship, seemingly causing hordes of the ghastly creatures to appear.

As the group opened fire on the creatures, Rick's comm. turned on.

"This is Oak, I'm going to bring out some other Pokémon to help with these… Things," the Professor said in disgust and a huge flash of light came from behind Rick.

Rick turned to see what Oak had brought out and saw strange group of creatures standing around the Professor.

Oak clapped his hands, "Krakatoa, Raina, Seeker, you three cover the right side. Little Lady, Keeper, Aeneas, cover the left side. Try to take down the ships if you get an opening, but do _not_ let yourselves get hit by these creature's fire, it is powerful and nearly killed Blazer and Echo. Go!"

The creatures (Note #3) all nodded and moved across to the sides of the vehicle, with the people of Rick's group giving them room. Almost immediately the Pokémon added bolts of lightning, streams of fire, beams of energy, and, oddly enough, a flurry of razor sharp leaves to the battle.

Rick jogged up to Oak, "Are your… Dragons okay? You said that they were almost killed."

Oak got a hard look, "Yes, they'll be fine, but they won't be able to fight for a while. Thankfully my supplies had some medical gear and I was able to get them stable, but I don't want to risk any more of them."

Rick nodded solemnly, then pointed to the base of the mini-tower, "Keep an eye out and stay behind cover, we need you and your Pokémon."

Oak nodded and left, while Rick joined Daryl, opening fire on more of the monstrosities.

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, Reach (Epsilon Eridani-2), Eposz Continent, Viery Territory, Highland Mountains, center of original location of the former Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex_  
_Approx. 0810, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

After some quick introductions, the SGC personnel and the Deep Eyes had decided gear up and star their way to the Rally Point. They slowly moved as a group over the rough terrain with Teal'c, Ronon, and Teyla leading and the scientists and O'Neill in the middle of the rest of the group.

O'Neill and Carter were next to each other while they walked, with O'Neill keeping an eye on their surroundings and Carter eagerly examining the armor specifications.

Jack lowered his AR and glanced at Sam, "So, find out anything worthwhile?"

She looked up at him, her visor turning transparent, with her eyes full of amazement, "This armor is incredibly advanced. It's made of the Asgard's Naquadah/Carbon/Trinium alloy, has carbon nanotube support, and has a powerful integrated computer system. It would've taken us decades to develop anything remotely like this sir."

"Ah, any useful information?"

Carter glared at him for a moment, "It can take a hit from most anything that the Goa'uld, Wraith, Replicators, or the Ori troops could throw at us and it can enhance our strength by a fair amount. I am also trying to see if I can get the comm. systems to work, but I haven't had any luck so far."

O'Neill nodded, "Good to know. Think that if you can get the comms to work that you could use them to tell us where our supposed allies are?"

She shrugged, "Maybe? I don't know, it depends on how they work and such, so I won't know until I can get the damn thing to wor-"

Carter stopped as the comm. crackled and turned on, "-ere we go. This is Spartan team Horsemen and Spartan squad Noble attempting to contact special purpose squad SG-1, can you hear us?"

Carter and O'Neill shared a look and Jack gave her a look that said 'go ahead'. He then called out for everyone to stop.

"…This is Brigadier General Samantha Carter of the Es Gee See, to whom am I speaking?"

The unfamiliar women who first spoke responded, "This is Cortana of Horsemen."

Then another voice, a man's, "And this is Spartan Carter of Noble."

This Cortana continued, "From what I am to understand, our three units are to link up and get to Rally Point Alpha, I assume you are in charge General?"

Jack smirked as Carter responded, "No, I am not. My superior, Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill, is and he has been listening in."

You could hear the surprise in Cortana's voice as she spoke, "Well, then. General? How should we proceed?"

Jack had a small grin as he responded, "That depends, do you know where we all are in relation to the Rally Point?"

There was a pause, "Yes sir, I just got a map of the general area… It is two point one klicks south of you and Noble… Horsemen is about a klick further north."

The general silence around O'Neill and Carter was shattered by rapid, but brief gunfire from the front of the group, then O'Neill's comm. clicked and Teal'c spoke, "O'Neill. A small group of unfamiliar creatures attempted to charge us from the west and it seems that more are coming." This was punctuated another burst of gunfire. "It would be best if we continued moving to the Rally Point."

O'Neill nodded to Carter, "Agreed. Okay everyone, time to move!" Jack then brought his attention back to Cortana, "If we're lucky, we'll be at the Rally Point in ten minutes, what's the ETA for you Spartan units?"

Cortana hmm, "About seven minutes if we hurry, Noble?"

"Five," Carter responded curtly.

Sam and Jack shared a look, "Well, when you get to the Rally Point, call for backup if you can. Also what are you Spartans?" Jack asked as SG-1 jogged over the rough, over grown terrain.

The was some a bit of gunfire in the background as Cortana answered, "Ah, you don't know about Spartans? Well, long story short, we are all chemically enhanced super soldiers who wear special armor that enhances our capabilities…"

* * *

_Epsilon Eridani system, surface of Emese (Natural Satellite of Tribute (Epsilon Eridani-3)), U.N. Warship _Pillar of Autumn  
_Approx. 0800, June 12, 3286 AD (U.N. Military Standard Time)_

Eli Wallace yelped as he rolled off of his bed onto the cold, unforgiving floor. He groaned as he slowly pulled himself up, looking around the semi-familiar room. It was built in a similar manner to his room on the _Destiny_, but instead of a closet of a storage room that wasn't meant to be lived in, it was obviously made as living quarters, albeit clearly still on a starship of some sort. Eli looked down at himself, he was wearing a skin tight, lightly armored, grey body suit.

The large workstation beeped and a small circular pedestal on the upper corner lit up. A hologram of a middle aged Caucasian woman with brown hair appeared.

It turned to Eli, "Ah, good. You're up. I am shipboard A.I. Ganos Lal. You're aware of the situation, correct?" Eli nodded, squinting at the glare of the A.I.'s white dress in the dark room. Ganos Lal smiled and gestured to the door as it opened, "Good, you are among the people that is to see the Commodore. Now, your smart glasses are in a case in your left pocket, they will allow me to give you accurate directions to the bridge."

Eli reached into his pocket, took out the case, and put on the glasses. He then stepped out into the brightly lit passageway and started to follow the directions he was given.

After a few minutes, Eli literally bumped into Chloe, who was wearing a similar suit and a pair of smart glasses.

Reflexively grabbing onto his shoulder, Chloe steadied herself, "Sorry about that Eli, I didn't see you coming… Were you summoned to the bridge as well?"

Eli nodded as they continued down the p-way, "Yeah, any idea why we would be called up?"

"No idea, but the A.I. seems to be under the impression that I am the First Mate of this ship!"

"_Really_?"

"I know, right?! But if we Know what is going on here without being told, what if the Being that put us here made the A.I. have that idea about me?"

"As weird as it may seem, that actually sounds… _Reasonable_." Eli said as they rounded the corner to the only passageway to the bridge. Eli sighed, "As much as it sounds right, we probably won't be finding out either way… Plus, we are here and we can find out what the Commodore says about it."

The waited a moment for the blast door to open, then they stepped onto the surprisingly spacious bridge and two men were waiting in front of the main screen.

One was in a sleek grey suit of armor, he was very tall with grey hair and sharp blue eyes, and Eli's and Chloe's smart glasses identified him as Commodore Jacob Keys. The other was in a bulkier olive green suit of armor, he shorter than the Commodore, but was about six feet tall. He had a narrow burn scar under his right eye and he was identified as Sergeant Marcus P. Stacker.

Their arrival on the bridge brought Keys' attention to them, "Good, you're here. I believe you two are familiar with some of the people we are speaking to here. They are in the same boat as we are and I'm told you two are capable of thinking outside of the box." As he spoke, Keys gestured to the main screen, its display which was split into four, three parts showed groups of people and the last showed a scan of a planet along with the many object in its orbit.

As Eli and Chloe stepped in front of the screen, Eli curiously examined all of the people displayed. The bottom left had Colonel Young, Lieutenant Scott, and Sergeant Greer. The top left had Lieutenant Johansen, an unfamiliar woman who looked similar to Como. Keys, and an older, but still hard black man with greying, military cut hair. The top right section had Lieutenant James, Varro, and an unfamiliar black woman in a black and grey highlighted suit of armor.

Eli and Chloe stepping into view immediately brought the attention of every one on the screen to them. "Ah, Eli! Chloe! We need to some civilian eyes on this, because our military eyes are telling us we're screwed." Col. Young said frankly.

Eli was taken aback, "…Is it really that bad?"

The groups all shared looks, before Sergeant Stacker just pointed to the bottom right section of the screen.

Eli and Chloe leaned closer to the screen and they found that some information was transferred to their glasses.

Objects in Reach Orbit:

15 Capital class vessels of unknown origin, approx. 2.25Km long

210 Frigate class vessels of unknown origin, approx. 800m long

Approx. 1,000+ Dropship class vessels of unknown origin, approx. 20m long

"Wow… H-how many ships do we have?" Chloe asked worriedly.

The Commodore turned to them, "We have four. A Cruiser, two Frigates, and a Destroyer."

There was a long silence, until Eli spoke up, "…Can I get some info on what our ships can do and what they have? I can't say anything without knowing what we can even do."

Keys nodded, "Ganos? Please transfer the info to Eli's and Chloe's glasses." He then walked to the command chair and sat down. "And in the meantime, can you wake up the rest of the bridge crew?"

Ganos Lal appeared on the pedestal next to Keys, "They are heading down now, sir. Excluding Ellen Dowski and an addition for point defense, they are the same bridge crew that you had for OPERATION: RED FLAG."

Meanwhile, Eli was going over the info on the ships.

**_Autumn_-class heavy Cruiser:** _Pillar of Autumn_, IFF tag CR/H-001

**Dimensions:** 1,425m long, 383m wide, 431m tall

**Hull:** 2.5m Naquadah/Carbon/Trinium alloy plating &amp; is equipped with energy shields &amp; cloaking

**Propulsion/Power:** 2 Primary Sub-light engines/Asgard intergalactic hyperdrive/2 Mark XII Naquadah Generators

**Armament:** Main Weapons: 2 medium M.A.C.s - Secondary Weapons: 16 Onager mini-M.A.C.s/75 Rapier missile pods/75 Archer missile pods/120 Howler missile pods - Point Defense: 100 laser batteries/20 EMP cannons - Nuclear: 4 Shiva missiles/8 Rudra missiles/16 Hyperion missiles/20 Hornet mines

**Complement:** 8,715 personnel/4 Puddle Jumpers/15 GA-TL1 Longsword fighters/30 F-41 Broadsword fighters/30 F-302 Saber fighters/120 F-99 Wombat drones

**_Strident_-class heavy Frigates:** _Forward Unto Dawn_, IFF tag FF/H-003 – _In Amber Clad_, IFF tag FF/H-004

**Dimensions:** 575m long, 124m wide, 112m tall

**Hull:** 80cm Naquadah/Carbon/Trinium alloy &amp; is equipped with energy shields &amp; cloaking

**Propulsion/Power:** 2 Primary Sub-light engines/Asgard intergalactic hyperdrive/1 Mark XII Naquadah Generator

**Armament:** Main Weapons: 1 light M.A.C. - Secondary Weapons: 28 Rapier missile pods/12 Archer missile pods/28 Howler missile pods - Point Defense: 54 laser batteries/8 EMP cannons - Nuclear: 2 Shiva missiles/4 Rudra missiles/8 Hyperion missiles/10 Hornet mines

**Complement:** 2,573 personnel/4 F-41 Broadsword fighters/4 F-302 Saber fighters/20 F-99 Wombat drones

**_Daedalus_-class heavy Destroyer:** _George Hammond_, IFF tag DD/H-06

**Dimensions:** 600m long, 270m wide, 210m tall

**Hull:** 1.5m Naquadah/Carbon/Trinium alloy &amp; is equipped with energy shields &amp; cloaking

**Propulsion/Power:** 2 Primary Sub-light engines/Asgard intergalactic hyperdrive/1 Mark XII Naquadah Generator

**Armament:** Main Weapons: 8 Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons/Z-876 High Energy Drone Weapons (x100) - Secondary Weapons: 24 Rapier missile pods/12 Archer missile pods/6 Howler missile pods - Point Defense: 54 laser batteries/6 EMP cannons - Nuclear: 1 Corona/2 Shiva missiles/4 Rudra missiles/8 Hyperion missiles/10 Hornet mines

**Complement:** 2,452 personnel/8 Puddle Jumpers/2 GA-TL1 Longsword fighters/20 F-302 Saber fighters/40 F-99 Wombat drones

Eli considered the info for several minutes, until two men and three women walked onto the bridge. As the Commodore got up to speak to them, Eli approached the command chair pedestal.

"Ganos, I have a few questions about some of the ship equipment."

The small hologram's "head" tilted, "I cannot tell you any classified information Eli, so don't ask."

Eli shook his head, "No, I don't know what some of the things even are or what they do." The hologram gave an understanding "nod". "Okay, first off. All of these ships can cloak, so can we use that to slip away?"

Ganos Lal shook her head, "No, we _will_ not be leaving, must I remind you that the planet that these aliens are over is Reach. So, no."

"Right, Reach. Of the U.N.S.C., right? Since this is that Keys, it is that Reach?" Ganos nodded. "Okay then, what is its condition?"

"Pristine, it is perfectly terraformed and while it seems most of the cities and infrastructure are gone, the city of New Alexandria, a military outpost, and a number of material mines are still present."

"But there aren't any people around?" Ganos nodded. "Okay, but we won't abandon it… Reach has major resources and has major military importance, so we will fight for it. Plus, there is how Reach Fell… Fine then, can any of the fighters cloak? And what are Puddle Jumpers?"

"None of the fighters can cloak, but a type of drop ship that the _Stridents_ and the _Autumn_ have, are cloaking capable. The Puddle Jumpers are advanced scientific transport craft that are capable of cloaking and are made to go through Stargates… Where are you going with this?"

"Well, how willing would you guys be about using the nukes on these guys? Also what is a Corona?"

Virtual eyebrows shot up, "We will _not_ be using a Corona over Reach!"

This outburst got the attention of everyone on the bridge and on the main screen. The black woman in the black and grey armor spoke up from the top right section of the screen.

"Mr. Wallace, we will not use a one point three Teraton Nuclear device over Reach, are we clear?"

Everyone turned their gaze to him and Eli tossed his hands up, "Hey! I just wanted to know what it was, okay! It isn't as if I knew it was gonna be THAT big of a bomb."

Como. Keys shook his head, "Okay, you five get to your stations and get the ship and crew ready for anything." As they rushed to do so, he turned to Chloe. "Now, from what I understand, Ganos Lal thinks you are my new X.O., what do you think of that?"

Chloe shrugged, "I'm not sure. Really, the very idea of me being the Executive Officer of a large warship is… Well, ridiculous."

Eli cleared his throat, getting Keys' and Chloe's attention, "What if we used the nuclear mines? And then somehow got them to fly into a mine field?"

Como. Keys had contemplative look, then turned to the women in the black and grey armor, "Captain al-Cygni, what do you think of this?"

The now named Captain gained a calculating look, "…There's a number of ways we could do this, by laying a field, carefully placing them in the hostile fleet, or maybe even accelerating the mines at the fleet and all of these options have their downsides… Though perhaps we could pursue several of these options... So, Commodore Keys, Captain Keys, Colonel Young, let's see how we can do this…"

* * *

End Author Notes:

This one had taken a bit, because I had to fix somethings in chapter 2, so that thing in this chapter would make sense. Plus there was the release of Destiny: Rise of Iron and in addition to playing it, I had to figure out how I could work the new info into the story here.

Please review and have a good day.  
Bloodfox64

* * *

Note #1: Cortana is in the Helioskrill armor set.

Note #2: A modern building by the standards of the U.N.S.C. as of 2552.

Note #3: Krakatoa, a dour male Tyranitar. Raina, an adventurous female Arcanine. Seeker, a patient male Luxray. Little Lady, a sweet female Raichu. Keeper, a serine male Aggron. Aeneas, a curious male Venusaur.

Bridge crew of the _Protocol_: Ship Commander (Cole), First Mate and X.O. (Clyde Blart), Navigation (Spencer Blake), Weapons (Clare Willis), Point Defense (Clark Willis), Engineering (Joan Carmichael), Communication (Grace Harper), and 3 ship-side operations (Bart Richards, Jackie Gonzales, and Alan Wang).

Lord Terrence Hood (Bald, blue eyes), George S. Hammond (Bald), Hieronymus "Harold" Michael Stanforth (Old, grey hair, blue eyes), Danforth Whitcomb (Russian from Texas, bald, with a salt &amp; pepper mustache), Ysionris Jeromi, Thomas Lasky (brown hair and eyes), and ponies Frozen Mace, Sunny Days, and Blood Flower

_Pillar of Autumn_ Bridge crew: Ship Commander (Keys), First Mate and X.O. (Chloe Armstrong?), Navigation (Ensign William Lovell), Weapons (Lieutenant Aki Hikowa), Point Defense (O.C.?), Engineering (Unneeded on a ship as small as the Autumn-class), Communication (Lieutenant Abel Dominique), and Operations (Lieutenant Jane Hall)


End file.
